


At Water's Edge

by Autumn_Ignited, SailUncharted



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Falling In Love, Fish out of Water, Fluff and Angst, Galra Bio didn't treat him very nice, LITERALLY, Language Barrier, M/M, Marine Biologist Lance (Voltron), MerMay, Merdick, Mermaid Tales Bang 2020, Merperson Keith (Voltron), Science Experiments, Shenanigans, Slice of Life, keith glows, mostly on Keith, oh no my boyfriend is a fish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:36:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23970190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumn_Ignited/pseuds/Autumn_Ignited, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailUncharted/pseuds/SailUncharted
Summary: Lance is accepted to his dream internship at Galra Bio, the biggest marine biology center in the world. He gets to work with dolphins under the supervision of Galra's lead Biologist, Lotor himself. Any student in his shoes would kill for this position. Everything is going great until he ends up getting locked into the building after hours.Trying to find a way out, Lance discovers Galra Bio's secret: a deep-sea creature that looks all too human. Enchanted and obsessed, he comes back night after night to visit with it. During his late night escapades, Lance discovers something crazy: this creature? This fish-man-thing? He can *communicate* - not just like Lance's dolphins, but as an actual person. Lance has a choice: does he ignore the horrible experiments being done to something so human, or does he risk everything to save it and set it free?Turns out, it’s not a choice at all.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 64
Kudos: 279
Collections: Voltron Mermaid Tales Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sail: We're splitting this into chapters as we go, so I'm really not 100% on the chapter count on this (wow like normal)....once I figure it out I'll update it! 
> 
> Twitter Time gives you Two to Talk to [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)
> 
> Neato fact, if you like what we do you can check out [this cool link to find us other places!](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)

~💧~ 

Call him a sap, but Lance had framed his intern acceptance letter. It wasn’t his fault. Okay, he was the one that bought a frame, spent the time putting his letter in it, and hanging it perfectly on his wall. But, who wouldn’t if they were accepted into the most prestigious marine biology institute on Earth? Lance convinced himself it was completely normal. If only framing an acceptance letter guaranteed success. Unfortunately, now it was time to actually prove himself worthy of receiving it in the first place. 

Lance swallowed as he looked up, up, up at the imposing Galra Industries Marine Biology and Research Center, Galra Bio for short. It sat at the edge of the ocean with the beach pressed up against the rear of the building. The sun sparkled along the water as foamy waves pushed against the warm sand. Situated nicely on the coast next to all the fanciest hotels and the boardwalk shopping strip, he would kill to make this paradise his daily office. 

A job wasn’t a guarantee, but it was a possibility, and Lance was going to make it happen. Even if he had to eat ramen for the next month because it was unpaid. 

With all his childhood dreams, he opened the door. 

Inside was even better, if that was possible. The walls were lined with photos of different scientists next to their ground-breaking discoveries of new species or revolutionary research, or accepting rewards for major conservation efforts. In the center, there were displays of marine life inside of glass boxes. Everything felt huge; which was awe-inspiring and all, but not helpful to Lance’s growing anxiety. He made his way through the large entrance area and over to the reception desk on the far wall. 

Lance blushed before he even stepped up to the desk, because the lady sitting at the desk was...wow. Her hair was pulled into a high ponytail, tied off with a thick barrette. The suit she was wearing looked brand name and was tight over her curves. Anyone that took their appearance so seriously was already a step ahead in his book. 

“Welcome to the Galra Industries Marine Biology and Research Center, how can I help you?” she asked, blandly polite and largely disinterested.

“Uh, I’m here for my…” Lance shuffled through his papers to find the instructions that had been in his acceptance letter. He handed the paper over a little too fast and it rumpled as it hit her hand. “Today’s my first day. I’m supposed to be here at 11 o’clock to meet Dr. DéMone, I think?” 

Her smile became more genuine as recognition lit her eyes. “Lance, right? Lance Fuentes?”

He nodded.

“You’re just in time. Dr. DéMone is busy, but he’ll see you later. For now…” She called over a huge woman in a matching suit. “This is Zethrid. She’ll show you around in the meantime.”

Lance did his best to hold out a hand as he tried to stuff all his papers into his backpack. 

“I’ll wait for you to be ready,” she said, voice admonishing.

 _Oh shit._ Lance scrambled and zipped up his bag, standing straight. “Sorry about that. I’m Lance.” 

Zethrid took him in with a single glance, crossing meaty arms across her chest. “It’s your first day. There are bound to be mistakes, but I like punctuality and tidiness. It's good for the fish and it's good for us.” She shook his hand so hard that he thought he could hear his bones crack.

The tour lasted forever. Galra Bio was _huge;_ sixteen floors and a basement. Most of the floors were dedicated to paperwork and monitoring equipment but there was an entire floor filled with beeping computers that showed weather and ocean conditions in real time. Interesting as it was, Lance thought they’d never get to the fun stuff until Zethrid opened a set of key-coded double doors and they entered the research facilities. They must’ve passed through some kind of underground tunnel without him realizing it, because there was a pool connected to the ocean. Swimming inside were two dolphins that whistled as they entered. Now _this_ was what he was waiting for.

Lance did his best to follow...what was her name again? _Zeth_ -something. It was a difficult task to accomplish when he was also rubbernecking. Everything was so high-tech and his hands itched to play with it all. 

She led him around to the next room, knocking on a set of maple French doors before letting herself in. “Doctor DéMone? Your new intern is here, Sir.” 

A tall man with long white that fell neatly over his shoulder stood from his desk and smiled at Lance. “That makes you Mr. Fuentes, yes? I’m Lotor. A pleasure to meet you,” he said, extending his hand.

God, he was even more handsome in person. His poor bi heart wasn’t going to be able to cope. It took a moment for Lance’s brain to kick back into gear. "The pleasure is mine, Dr. DéMone. I'm a huge fan. I followed your whole discovery of the deep-sea coral caves. The work you did on pressurized tech for deep-sea exploration is, _wow_." Realizing he'd been shaking hands the whole time he quickly let go, taking a step back. 

Dr. DéMone chuckled. “That’s very kind of you, but please, call me Lotor. I trust you’ve been shown around?” 

Fuck, what was her name? Zeddra, Zeerath, Zethmir…

“Yes, _Zethrid,_ ” he privately congratulated himself, “took me on a whole tour. It’s an amazing facility.” 

Lance was talking too much. He was hyper aware of his body and every word that he said and he was pretty sure both were coming off as _a lot._ Most people thought he was too energetic, but sometimes it was hard to control his mouth. 

“Lotor,” he finished way too late, and now it sounded like the beginning of a new sentence. “Uh, what would you like me to do first?” _Nice save_. 

“You’re currently focusing your study on mammals, right?” Lotor asked as he opened the door for Lance.

They left, walking back in the direction they’d just come from. The whole time, Lance tried to match his stride to Lotor’s and talk as little as possible.

“Yeah, I am.”

Lotor handed Lance a datapad with his schedule for the internship and information on the facility. “You’re going to like this, then. I want you to shadow Zethrid until lunch, then come to my office. Zethrid is in charge of our dolphins.” 

“I can do that.” He could definitely do that. Lance thought he’d be stuck on coffee duty, not shadow an actual scientist collecting data on dolphins. 

“Today you’ll be familiarizing yourself with the building and our work schedule, but tomorrow I want you to get your hands dirty with Zethrid and the dolphins.” 

It was everything he could do to keep himself from whooping with joy. “That sounds _fantastic_.” 

They reached the pool that fed from the ocean and Lotor swept an arm out. “I’ll leave you to it. Be sure to come by for lunch - my treat.” 

“Of course, sir. Doctor. Lotor.” 

“Dr. Lotor; I like that,” Lotor chuckled as he left. 

For the next several hours, Lance shadowed Zethrid as he’d been instructed. Despite her wrestler physique and initial intimidation factor, working with her turned out to be fun. _Beyond_ fun. She was, of course, a professional in every sense of the word, like Lance would assume of a senior biologist working for Galra Bio. But she was also nerdy and blunt in a funny way. Her jokes would catch him off guard, and he would stand there until her smile cracked, lighting up her eyes. 

They put Kiko the dolphin through a string of tests, both for her health and in the name of science. Kiko was adorable and one of the most laid back dolphins he'd ever met. She passed her physical with flying colors. 

"I think she's flirting with you," Zethrid said as she pulled out Kiko's number mat. 

"Ladies can't resist the Lance charm." Putting his hand over the water, Kiko nosed against it, clicking. 

"Watch it," she barked. "We have a strict no fucking the sea life rule." 

Lance sputtered, pulling his hand back as if he'd been bitten. "I - no! I'd never-" He stopped when Zethrid bent over with laughter. 

"Oh, you're too easy. Calm down, Lance." 

He almost stuck out his tongue, but thought better of it. Lance forced himself and his blush back in order to return to learning. It was hard enough to absorb everything without her teasing. 

By lunch, Lance had gotten the hang of recording the dolphin data and deciphering Zethrid’s jokes. 

“Don’t you have a date with the big boss?” Zethrid asked, not bothering to look up from where Kiko. And who could blame her? Kiko was adorable. 

Checking his phone, he cursed. “Shit, it’s already five past.”

“Lotor isn’t as mean as I am. He probably forgot about you and is deep into paperwork.”

That gave Lance pause. “Should I still go?”

“Of course you should! Hurry. You’re late. Do you want to get fired on your first day?” She rubbed Kiko’s nose and smiled back at him.

A joke. 

Lance returned the smile. “I’ll be back after lunch then.”

Lotor had, in fact, gotten involved in paperwork and was gracious and accommodating when Lance knocked on his door. 

“My apologies,” he began, gesturing at the desk strewn with reports. “We’re deep in the middle of arranging the arrival of some new monitoring equipment and I’m afraid it’s become more difficult than imagined. But enough of that for us both.” He smiled as he shrugged on his jacket. “How was your first day?” 

“Fantastic. Better than fantastic. Zethrid is really good with the dolphins. I learned so much. We put Kiko through a battery of tests and she’s so smart. I can’t wait to get my own research started up with, um.” Lance realized he was talking too much again and closed his mouth with a click.

“That’s wonderful to hear.” Lotor sounded as if he genuinely meant that, and his smile warmed. “Zethrid is much better with dolphins than people, but she must like you if she cared enough to include you. Thai?” 

Lance nodded along before realizing the last word was about lunch. “Oh, yeah. Thai is good.”

“Excellent. I know just the place.”

Lunch was casual, comfortable, and more than Lance had expected from his boss on day one by far. Lotor was eager to hear about his passions and to find ways to integrate Lance in such a way that he could put his good grades to work for them, as well as solidify a place in the company for him upon graduation - provided he did well, of course. By the end of his first day, Lance had never been more determined to accomplish something before in his life. 

Aside from a few hiccups with the punch card app to clock in and getting lost once or twice, his first week went off without a hitch. He spent most of his time learning the schedule and routines for the dolphins, but he was also shown around the facilities for the other research mammals. There were two manatees who had been badly injured by speed boats, a male and female beluga whale pair who were recovering from attacks by whalers, and a few seals who had been born at the facility and could not be released to the wild. While the dolphins had his heart, Lance quickly found himself growing attached to the animals, the work, and even the lab facility itself. 

Which was how he found himself here and trapped. 

He’d been pouring over the days’ notes. Kiko had come down with a cold and had been performing poorly on her tests. She was learning how to spell, and was normally eager to perform, but that day she refused to do her alphabet or her numbers. Her blood test had gone out that morning and it would be another week before they knew if there was anything worse going on with her. Lance rubbed his eyes and looked up.

“Hey, Zeth, did we send out the fecal sample with the blood…” The only light on in the lab was his desk light. It was deserted. Lance sat back, his chair squeaking in the silence. “Shit.”

The building locked automatically at nine and his keycard was still being processed. He shoved all his files into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. This could be finished at home; he needed to get out of here before he was stuck here all night. _Damn Zethrid._ She probably thought it would be funny to leave him working alone.

He raced out of the lab, shutting the door behind him. It echoed in the empty building. Only the emergency lights were on. He’d never been here so late and it was way darker at night.

 _Fuck. Please don’t be locked. Please don’t be locked._ He ran at the door and it bounced against the bolt. Locked. “Double fuck.”

The janitor. Lance snapped his fingers. If the janitor was still here, they would have a keycard. “Hey!” he yelled as he jogged down the hall. “Hey! Anyone still here?” His voice echoed back at him, sharp and metallic. Without the bodies of people to absorb the noise, the building became downright dystopian. Squinting into the dark hallways, Lance held his phone close and turned on the flashlight. 

This was definitely the part of the movie where the killer jumped out or the zombies banged against a door. 

“I need out. So if anyone is still here, just...say something?” His voice grew increasingly soft until he was barely muttering to himself.

With nothing better to do, he kept winding down the floors, hoping that eventually he would stumble across the night janitor. There had to be one. Places like this always hired cleaning people and certainly never during normal business hours. After nearly twenty minutes of aimless searching, wherein his hopes of rescue grew progressively dimmer, he found himself in a corridor he had never visited. 

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t allowed down here. This was where the higher-ups kept the stuff that couldn’t be leaked to the public until it had been well-verified and publishable after double-blind review and yadda yadda. Still, he’d looked just about everywhere else, so he figured he’d take the slap on the wrist if it meant actually finding another human to let him out of the damn building. 

The first three doors were locked, but the fourth one opened. 

“Hey - anyone in here? I lost track of time and I’m…” 

Lance cut himself off. Blinked. Blinked again. 

Because at some point, he had wandered out of Galra Bio and straight into a Sci-Fi movie of some kind. 

The room was dark, like the rest of the building, but was lit in the middle by the eerie green glow of a tank. It was massive - porpoise or cetacean of some variety, it had to be - but instead of being open on top, there was a metal grate sitting over it like a hatch mark grid. To the left was an observation tube, also lit with that same strange green. 

There were metal stairs leading to the top of the grid and an observation platform, but they also extended down into the floor, likely to an underwater viewing area. 

He should really leave. This was a restricted area and there was obviously no janitor or late night worker here. Staying and looking around when there were probably cameras was a bad, bad idea. Lance _should_ turn around, close his eyes, plug his ears, and pretend none of this had happened. 

He did at least pull the door closed behind himself. For the other things, he’d do that after he got a peek at the tank.

Up close, the tank looked empty. This room was probably not in use, or was waiting for a shipment. If he had to hazard a guess, it would be from Lotor’s deep-sea discovery. It was true that Lance was studying mammals, but he’d be lying if deep-sea monsters weren’t his second favorite. They’d be his first, but they were hard to study and because of Sea World, mammals were more profitable. As horrible as that was. 

He let his hand drag over the empty tank as he followed it around. It was big enough to house almost anything smaller than a giant squid. Even then, the squid would probably fit, but it’d be very cramped. A little further and he was at the observation tube. The water was dark and he couldn’t tell if anything was in there. Probably not, since Galra Bio was very strict on keeping animals in them for as short a period as possible and many of the mammals became stressed in such tight spaces.

So when a pale, webbed hand pressed against the glass with a sudden thump, he definitely, _definitely_ screamed. 

Lance cupped a hand over his mouth and looked around as if he’d get caught. When no one came running and the reality hit him that a creature was caught in the observation tank by a negligent employee, he was all action. The small panel by the tube indicated the temperature of the water, the salt content, ammonia levels, and pressure. _Not helpful, not helpful_. This was much more advanced than any of the ones he’d worked with, so everything was in the wrong spot.

A bit more looking and he found the release valve at the bottom of the panel near the floor. “What a stupid design,” he told the tank. He pressed it, and the ensuing whoosh of machinery and water proved that it worked. The hatch between the two cages lifted.

The hand disappeared and a shadow sank into the large holding tank. Shortly after, it began sluggishly swimming in circles before coloring the dim water with red patterns of light. 

“Woah.” Lance hung his head over the grate and cooed. “You’re beautiful. What are you? A squid? Maybe. Some other kind of cephalopod?” He clicked his tongue. “Maybe a relative of the angler fish we’ve just discovered?”

The water thrashed and frothed, sending saltwater spilling over the grate. 

“Or not…” Lance squatted down and cupped his hands over his eyes so he could see better. He could make out a tail, mostly because that was where the bioluminescence came from. Though, it also seemed to have fins on the side of its head that could light up too. 

“One sec, let me check your files.” He stood and looked around. There was a desk and a few filing cabinets. The usual things in his lab were there too, like the computer. He shouldn’t touch it… like, he _really_ shouldn’t. No. File cabinets first. 

The top drawers were a few spare office supplies instead of documents. Lance moved to the next and the next. Nothing, nothing, paper clips…One thin folder sat at the back of the bottom most drawer. 

It was unlabeled and worn around the edges as if it’d been there for as long as the cabinet had been installed. Not very hopeful, Lance opened it. 

The folder was old but the paper inside was crisp and new. _Project Red,_ the paper said at the top of a chart of vital signs and blood samples. It didn’t tell him much except that the subject was within healthy ranges.

The next was carbon paper, worn and hard to read. A bill and order sheet for the grate that was on top of the tank with Lotor’s signature. 

Finally, a progress note, like the ones Lance had learned to write for the dolphins. “Subject is dangerous, do not interact. Diet has been changed to ‘as prescribed by Dr. DéMone’, but its condition doesn’t seem to be improving. I’ll be frank, there’s some weird shit going on.” The rest was filled with information on the battery of tests for that day. Spelling, numbers, play, facial recognition, all passed with high scores. It was definitely misplaced. These records were usually filled throughout the day by more than one person. This one was marked at 2 PM. The last test of the day. 

Lance sighed. It wasn’t much. Everything must’ve been transferred to the computer and the paper documents destroyed. If only he could get his hands on that computer.

One more look and he’d start his search for the janitor again. Leaning close the glass, Lance said, “Okay beautiful, I gotta go. Do you wanna show me what you look like, or do you enjoy being a mystery?” 

Moments ticked by as the water sloshed against the sides. 

Lance jumped as two webbed hands slammed into the glass. Noise all around him. Noise, noise, noise. It made his eyes swim and he teetered in place before his brain caught up to what was happening. An unsettlingly human face was screeching in rage.

The creature - man? - had slits for a nose and teeth like a shark, but otherwise looked mostly human. Its eyes were a violent bioluminescent violet with two dark stripes in the middle - almost like a cat if they hadn’t been so thin. It’s ear-fins vibrated as it screamed, sending the water around its head pulsing. 

Lance slammed his hands over his ears. _What the fuck._ “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s just me. Shhh,” he tried over the screeching.

The screeching went on another minute before the creature realized that Lance hadn’t moved. It closed its mouth and peered at the glass, tilting its head to the side, frowning deeply. 

“Wow. You’re really grumpy, aren’t you?” Lance rubbed the sides of his head. He didn’t look directly at the thing. It was too unnerving how human its face was. Instead, he studied the scales he could now see. “Definitely not a cephalopod, then. Delphinidae? No. Cetacea? Too small. Trichechidae…possible. No, that explains the shape but not the make up...”

Evidently whatever Lance was doing was of no more interest to the creature. Its pupils returned to human-sized circles and its sharp teeth retracted. All of the fire seemed to leave it, and the lights on its body dimmed and stopped flashing as it drifted listlessly in place, slowly sinking. 

“Woah. Hey, buddy.” Lance leaned over the grate and the dark circle of the top of its head grew smaller. “You feeling alright? Maybe I shouldn’t have let you out of your tube. What if you were sick and I just made it hard for everyone tomorrow?” 

The shape kept sinking, reaching a hand out to drag against the tank wall. 

Lance looked back at the door. He should really leave, but he’d let this thing out of its tank and someone was going to know. If he left it like this, there might be an investigation, and then the cameras would be reviewed, and then he’d lose his internship.

He chased the fish down the stairs to the viewing room. It was much easier to see from down here, but he still kept his eyes averted. The _thing_ was just too human and it made Lance feel off kilter. 

It glanced over at him, and from the backlit tank. Long black hair billowed around it - definitely _not_ a fishlike quality. The tail was long and thick, powerfully built like an orca, but the fin was wide and ribbed like a fish. The lights along its body flickered purple before dimming. 

Altogether the thing, whatever it was, looked to be as dangerous as it was alluring. 

But it also just looked... _sad_. 

“Wow. You really are beautiful.” Lance walked up and hovered his hand over the glass. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. It must be hard, away from your habitat.” 

The creature seemed to consider him more seriously. It rotated itself until it was facing him and glanced at his hand. Turning its glowing gaze back to Lance, it pressed its hand up against his. 

“Hey, there,” Lance said to their hands. “You’re making me feel like Goodall,” he chuckled. “Not as scary as you make yourself seem, are you? Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of you. I’m sure your team is the best Galra Bio has to offer. You’ll be right as rain in no time.”

The creature’s face scrunched back up and it hissed again, curling in on itself. 

“Are you in pain?” Ugh. Lance really shouldn’t have let the thing out of the observation tank. This was probably why it was in there in the first place. “Shhh, hey. It’s okay. Why don’t we put you back in your tank so they can figure out what’s wrong? Kiko has a cold and she really hates all the tests we run on her, too, but it’s for her own good.” 

It looked back up towards the tube, then back down at Lance, eyes widening in fear. It looked directly at him and shook its head. 

The people working with it must be progressing by leaps and bounds. It seemed even more intelligent than Lance’s dolphins. It was almost as if they were having a conversation that the creature could understand. He bet that was why it could touch its...fin to the glass. Still, whatever was making it ill seemed to be affecting its mood. “C’mon. I’ll get you a fish.”

The creature seemed to roll its eyes as Lance turned around. He opted to think it was a trick of the light.

He climbed the stairs to the top and found the cooler. All animals there were trained on a reward system, so that they got a treat before and after going into their observation tank. 

He paused. _Duh._ That was why it was so upset. He let it out without giving it a fish. Turning around, he grabbed another fish for good measure.

The tank had a little feeding port for treats or medication. He slipped the first fish in and made the food whistle.

Swimming over, the creature looked down, looked back at Lance, and continued to shake its head no. It chirped a few things and pointed up to the top of the grate. 

This was seriously freaking him out. It was almost like the thing was communicating on an intelligent level. The next food whistle came out shaky. “C’mon, beautiful. Back in your tank.” 

This time, it crossed its arms stubbornly and shook its head. 

Without thinking, Lance pleaded, “Please. I’ll get in trouble if they find out I did this and then I’ll lose my internship and no one will ever hire me because the biggest biotech company in the world blacklisted me.” 

Useless. There was no way he was going to get this creature back in the tube if it didn’t want to go. Basically, he was fucked.

It looked at him. Closed its eyes. Opened them again at half-mast and swam back up into the tube. 

"Holy shit." Impossible. This was impossible. He was hallucinating. He quickly pressed the button to close the tank. "Thank you." 

He felt silly talking to it like a person, but it seemed to understand him. More so than the dolphins or seals. 

"I'll be back," he said, unable to stand the almost humanly sad look on its face. He slipped the other fish into the feeding port. Maybe that would make it feel better. "Once I get my keycard. I'll be back to visit you and bring you extra fish." 

It looked at him one more time before turning away, sinking down to the bottom and curling its tail close to itself. 

Lance left and snuck out of the forbidden area without getting caught. He was beginning to think there wasn't a night janitor and he'd have to sleep at his desk. 

As he was trying to decide which dolphin toy would make the best pillow, a security guard found him. He was kindly escorted out without any questions and only a few laughing jabs. 

That night he had dreams of the deep ocean and sleeping gods awakening. 

~💧~

The next day, he was painfully distracted. 

Visions of glowing tails and pale hands filled his brain until Zethrid chastised him for being so absent minded. He'd mixed up the results of the two dolphins and dropped one of their medications, spilling it all over the floor. Eventually, she sent him to take a break with a warning. 

Ugh. This was awful. He couldn't get the strange creature out of his head. Part of him knew exactly what it was, he just refused to admit it. Things like that were children's’ stories; no way were...you know... _mermaids_...real. 

Like. 

_Real_ real. 

He went to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. If he concentrated for the rest of the day, he internally bargained, he'd let himself see it again. Staring at his dripping reflection, he nodded. No one would know and maybe it'd get the thing out of his head. 

That night, after Zethrid's scolding, he stayed under the guise of fixing the paperwork he'd messed up. This time, he was very aware of the lights shutting off and the automatic locks sliding into place. He waited another hour before daring to leave the lab. 

It was as silent and abandoned as the night before, only this time, his heart was racing. He felt like a spy slinking through hallways and hiding behind decorative plants. 

Sneaking into the forbidden area felt twice as dangerous. No longer was he the naive Lance of the past just trying to find a way out. He was risking everything consciously so that he could see this fish again. 

At the door, he paused. If he left now he might be able to forget any of this happened. He could walk away and get back to his internship and dreams. He wouldn't be breaking any rules and everything would go back to normal. 

A normal that would plague him. That would always know that he could have gotten to work with a real mermaid. 

He opened the door. 

The room was unchanged. The tank and tube were still backlit by brackish blue and green, and the murky shadow swirling around meant the creature was probably in the observation tube. 

Closing the door behind him as quietly as possible, Lance breathed a sigh of relief as it clicked shut. He looked up, trying to see through the glass and water. “Hey, I’m back,” he whispered. No response. Gathering his courage, he walked to the tank.

“Hey, beautiful. I’m back. You still not feeling well?”

There was a stir of movement inside before the pale face appeared again, pressed against the glass. It blinked a secondary eyelid, as if trying to make him out in the darkness. 

It was impossible. There was _no way mermaids were real_. Except for the fact that one was in front of him right now, looking at him. 

“Amazing. You have to be deep sea from your coloring and bioluminescence. Is that why it took us so long to find you?” And that hair. It was probably some kind of tentacle substance like the ones on jellyfish. That would explain the grate over the tank. If it was poisonous and inclined to be angry, that was a dangerous combination. 

Narrowing its eyes, it turned away, leaning its back against the glass wall. 

“Aw, don’t be like that.” Lance eyed the freezer. “How about I get you a fish and let you out for a while?”

That seemed to intrigue it at least a little. It looked over its shoulder with a guarded expression. 

How much could it understand? Lance smiled, trying to be disarming. "I'll go get you a fish. Don't tattle on me, I'm probably ruining your diet plan." 

He jogged over to get the fish and then back, sliding it into the side feeder. 

The fish-man looked down at it, then suspiciously back at Lance. Slowly, he took the fish out and examined it. 

"See? Not so bad. A fish for you, a one sided conversation for me. We all win." 

Rather than eating the fish, the creature held it, banging his hand against the glass to get Lance’s attention before pointing to the floor of the tube, as if to remind him of his promise. 

"Okay, beautiful. But you have to come back inside. If we get caught, it'll be no more late night fish. Deal?" Lance didn't expect an answer, so he didn’t wait for one. Bending down, he pushed the release. Water rushed out as the mechanical door whirred, opening.

When he looked up ‘Beautiful’ nodded solemnly. As if that did not convey agreement enough, it frowned at its own hand before managing an approximation of a thumbs up. 

"How in the - is that a thumbs up?" 

It nodded again and actually looked a little bit proud of itself. 

"Well, aren't you clever." 

He didn’t see the creature again for another minute, but the sloshing of the water at the top told him it was swimming fast - very likely stretching its tail from being bent in the small tube. 

When it - he, Lance decided; Not that it really mattered, but it felt more natural than ‘it’ - swam up to the glass again, he was smiling. His ear-fins fluttered and stirred the air around them and he let out a series of happy-sounding chirps, similar to dolphin vocalizations but more resonant and closer to actual notes. In fact, it almost resembled a melody. 

Lance listened to Beautiful sing, wide eyed and open mouthed. When the song faded he smiled, slow and amazed. “Thank you. That was lovely.”

Beautiful lit up. Literally. His whole body rippled with violet in a brief burst of bioluminescence before his face closed and became guarded once more. 

“Woah, you could do that every day and I’d never get bored.” He rocked on his feet as he watched. He didn’t have a plan beyond ‘go visit the actual true to life mermaid- man- folk?’ and now that he was here, he had no idea what to do with himself. 

Beautiful swam up against the glass and put his hand to it, tilting his head. 

“I’ll stay here while you play. Don’t worry.”

Beautiful shook his head and pressed his hand to the glass again, more emphatically. 

“You want me to come there?” Lance pointed to himself and then Beautiful.

He nodded. 

The intelligence level still creeped him out. While humanity looked for intelligent life in the stars, they had no idea it was in their oceans. He stepped forward and hesitantly placed his hand over Beautiful’s.

Bioluminescent purple eyes stared at him, unblinking. Beautiful watched him, analyzed him, looked through him in a way. Then he blinked and his eyes crinkled a bit with his small, hesitant smile. 

Lance felt like he was the one in a tank and on display. “Hi?”

Beautiful smiled a little deeper and waved. 

Lance grinned. “You’re really smart, you know that?” He traced the outline of Beautiful against the glass. “How did someone so smart end up here?”

The smile crashed and his expression closed in. Beautiful looked down, a crease forming between his brows before he held up his wrists together as if they were bound. 

“Captured? I figured. I’m just not sure how they outsmarted you. You seem so human.” Lance shook his head. “Let’s not think about that. How much can you understand? Uh, hold up five fingers if you can understand me.”

Rolling his eyes, Beautiful held up his hand and waved it with a pointed glare. 

Lance waved back.

The glare became decidedly more annoyed. 

“Oh! Oh, you were holding up five fingers. Duh. Wow.” The ethics of holding a person so intelligent in a cage to be studied seemed dubious at best. It was obvious that he was more intelligent than the dolphins or any sea life Lance had ever met. Land life too, for that matter. 

The ripples in the water coupled with the look on Beautiful’s face seemed to indicate he was...well, doing whatever the mermaid equivalent of chuckling was. He looked curiously at Lance and pointed to him. 

“Me?” He pointed to himself.

Beautiful nodded, and tilted his head again. 

Himself. What about himself? Lance furrowed his brow and looked up at Beautiful unsure. “I’m…Lance?”

Another burst of flashing violet as Beautiful nodded and gave his approximate thumbs up. 

“Yeah, I’m Lance. Nice to meet you...” He pointed at the mermaid. “Should I keep calling you Beautiful, or do you have a name?”

Beautiful shrugged, or appeared to do something that looked an awful lot like shrugging, and sang a trilling melody as he pointed at himself. 

Lance tried to mimic it with some clicks and a few hums. “Maybe I should stick to Beautiful.”

That made Beautiful laugh, and it sounded like a chord being played - several notes at the same time. 

“Yeah, it definitely fits you.” Lance marveled at the way a smile transformed Beautiful’s face; his eyes sparkled and the muscles softened and his ear fins wiggled. It was one of the cutest things he’d ever seen. 

“How old are you?” Lance cocked his head, trying to guess. Sea mammals lived about as long as humans, minus a few decades for some. He’d probably place Beautiful around a human twenty, but without knowing the life cycle of his species it was impossible to tell if he was fully grown or not.

Beautiful scrunched his nose as he thought, then held up one finger. Followed by nine. 

“Nineteen?”

A nod and a “thumbs up.” 

“Oh, we’re really close. I’m twenty one.” The conversation trailed off as Lance ran out of things he could ask. He had plenty of questions, the problem was communication. How did you get here, where are you from, how are your species born and what’s their life cycle; all of it was too complicated for numbers and nods. 

Well, there was one question that might work. “Are there more of you?”

An emphatic nod. 

“More…how have we never discovered you before?” Lance asked himself. “Then, you have a family?”

There was a flash of something unreadable in Beautiful’s eyes, but they darkened when he shook his head. 

“I’m sorry.” The ocean was a dangerous place, but loss for any mammal was difficult. “Even if you did, it wouldn’t be a happy question since you’re here. That was insensitive. I’m sorry.”

Beautiful shook his head, and when he opened his eyes again, they were glowing a little once more. Then he pointed to Lance again, giving him that inquisitive head tilt. 

“My family?” Lance snorted and grew comfortable. “Now you’ve done it. I hope you’re ready for an hour-long explanation.” He started with his siblings and then said one line about food and spent close to an hour explaining his abuela’s delicious Cuban cuisine. 

By the time he was yawning, Beautiful had learned almost an entire family tree of the Fuentes familia.

He seemed perfectly content to keep listening, but when Lance nodded off in the middle of a story about Sylvio losing his front teeth to a baseball, Beautiful had to bang on the glass to rouse him. 

“Sorry. I think I should go home.” Lance stood, yawning. “I’ll come back tomorrow. I promise.” 

With a nod, Beautiful swam back into the observation tube, folding himself up to fit in the cramped space.

"Sorry about this. I hope you get better soon." He pressed the button and the tube closed. "I'll see you tomorrow, g'night." 

And he did. 

Every night, he came to visit Beautiful. He had to set a timer on his phone so that he could get enough sleep. Late nights with Beautiful and early mornings with his internship were starting to wear on him. 

His advances with Beautiful, though, were worth the loss of sleep. He'd grown frustrated at the primitive pantomime form of communication, so he'd started teaching him sign language. It worked for gorillas, and it worked twice as well for Beautiful. 

He took to it like…well…y’know. A fish to water. Lance was slower and had to look up the signs multiple times even though he was the teacher. 

Two weeks in and they were communicating with rough, stilted gestures. Three weeks and they could almost make complete sentences. 

It was three weeks into their visits that Lance first noticed Beautiful’s ribs beginning to stick out. 

_You’re really thin. Are you sick?_ Lance signed. There wasn’t really a way to be subtle with his level of sign. It was blunt or no communication at all.

Beautiful shook his head and said _No fish. You - only - give fish. Never sick._

 _Not sick? Why are you in the small tank? Night after night- you’re in the small tank._ This whole time he’d assumed that Beautiful was sick and that he needed to be closely regulated. He’d even felt guilty for sneaking him fish and interrupting his diet. 

_Only big tank - for tests. Hurt. Hungry. Only you - nice._

“That’s torture,” he said aloud. He didn’t know the sign for torture and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. “But-” _They have to care. I don’t understand,_ he finished in sign.

Beautiful shook his head. _Only hurt. Hurt stolen. Hurt small tank. No fish - ocean, only you. Fin hurt. Small._

Lance sat back, eyes staring into space as the horror of what Beautiful said sunk in. No feedings since the ocean? Galra Bio had been _starving_ him? “What kind of tests are they doing on you?” Lance re-focused on his face.

Apparently they had not covered the signs for Beautiful to answer. He mimed blood drawing, then lack of air, and finally, cutting samples. 

The temperature dropped a few degrees and Lance shivered. He looked around the lab again with new eyes. Surgical equipment and vials no longer looked like innocent testing equipment. Beautiful wasn’t sick. They were slowly killing him for samples. 

_Are you scared,_ Lance asked, worried about the answer, _of_ _this place?_

 _Scared_ . Beautiful had no trouble answering, and his face made it clear what an understatement that word was. _Scared scared scared_ . He signed it over and over. He ended on a resigned - _no here. Here end. End here._

Lance pulled out his phone and searched his ASL app. “Death?” he signed as he spoke.

Beautiful nodded. _Scared_ . Then his eyes, the purple light of them, softened. _Not scared - you._

Lance stood so fast his phone fell to the floor and he pressed his forehead to the glass. “I’m a nobody. I have no power. I don’t even actually work here. It’s pointless to not be scared of me, it doesn’t help you.”

Beautiful sank down enough to press his forehead to the glass as well, giving Lance a small, resigned smile. _I know_ , he signed, _but say to you. Thank you. You - kind. Nice - sometimes - not scared. Helps think - you - when -_ and then he swiveled to show his hip, where a huge, angry chunk had been carved from his side. The black of his fin was interrupted by the fleshy white of exposed tail meat, the scales around the wound sliced with precision. 

“No,” Lance whispered. “They can’t.” 

How _dare_ they. 

Something so wonderful and intelligent as Beautiful should have been treated with respect, not like a lab rat! He was so smart that calling him smart was an insult. He was _human_ in every sense of the word besides body. “You have to get out of here. It’s not safe.”

Beautiful did his aquatic laughter thing where his ear fins vibrated and his gills flapped. He smiled sadly at Lance and shrugged. _Where? Death here. Okay, Lance._ They had established a sign for Lance’s name early on - just the sign for L held over the chest. When Beautiful signed it this time, he held it over where a human heart would be.

"It's not okay." Lance felt sick. This whole time and he'd never stopped to think Beautiful was being abused. This whole time he'd been blinded by Galra Bio and his all-important internship. "I'm sorry." 

_No sorry._ Beautiful shook his head, sending his long black hair swirling around him. _Nice talking. Long time ocean - no talking._

"I can't watch you die." Lance squeezed his eyes shut. "I have to do something." 

Beautiful sank down further, trying to catch his eyes when he opened them. He didn’t seem to have the signs for whatever he wanted to say. 

“It’s okay. I’ll think of something. Just…don’t get your hopes up.” Lance smiled, trying to reassure Beautiful. “And I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Beautiful took that as his cue to swim back into the tube. When he had bent and folded himself enough to fit, he looked up at Lance. Wriggling until he could get a hand free, he signed _safe Lance._

The alarm on his phone went off and Lance jumped. He picked it up from the ground and turned it off. “I don’t want to lock you in there.”

 _Safe Lance_ , Beautiful signed more emphatically. His eyes were narrowed and it was clear he was giving a command. _Go. Safe._

Lance squeezed his phone. It wasn’t fair. This was his fault. He should’ve noticed. He should be able to do something about it. “Safe. I promise.” Sighing, he walked over and pressed the release. The door hummed as it shut. _You too. Safe. Try._

It took a few seconds for Beautiful to craft some kind of response, but he settled on a little smile - almost cocky - and _strong fish_. 

“Yeah, you are,” Lance said, softness creeping around the edges of his words. “G’night, Beautiful.”

Beautiful smiled at him again before turning around and curling up tight.

That night Lance went home and called Pidge, even though it was well after midnight. A grumpy groan answered. That didn’t deter Lance from launching straight into the night’s events. Her voice grew more and more awake with Lance’s frantic explanation. He was tired and half in tears as he explained the abuse and neglect. How many other animals had been hurt by Galra Bio? It broke Lance’s heart. He had to save Beautiful, even if it cost him everything. Eventually, once he figured out how, he’d come back and save all the rest. 

“Okay. Just to be clear,” Pidge said into the ensuing silence. “You need my help. Stealing a _mermaid._ From your boss?”

Lance sighed, biting his lip. That’s what he was asking for, wasn’t it? Asking to give up everything and put them both in danger. Yes. Definitely. It was worth it, at least for him. “Yeah, I am.”

There was another long pause of silence, broken only by the occasional hiccup of Lance holding back sobs. Then Pidge sighed. “...We’re going to need a _much_ bigger van.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Mintusti our wonderful beta who has abandoned the party rat gods, rip party rat
> 
> Autumn: Guys, I’m honestly really proud of this one. It’s very different from our usual takes, and I hope you find it as fun and refreshing as we did. I can’t wait for some of the scenes from the next two chapters. They’re seriously some of my favorites we’ve ever written. It was lots of fun working with our artist [Just a Space Gay](https://twitter.com/justaspacegay) who did the cover art in this chapter!  
> Additional huge thank you to [Jade_smania](https://instagram.com/pretzellus?igshid=koap3959hg57) for the awesome picture of Lance and Beautiful meeting for the first time 
> 
> Sail: it was really fun to write emotionally stable lance. like this lance has Got His Shit Together, he's been through relationships before, he's older, and well adjusted, and its just cool to have their dynamic be less about rivals and more about culture uwu i super enjoyed this bang and [Just a Space Gay](https://twitter.com/justaspacegay) is so cool!! she worked really hard on some art for this fic please check her out!
> 
> [Pretzellus](https://twitter.com/jade_smania) was so sweet to bless us with some arts for this, I'm crying. 
> 
> tweet tweet mother fucker [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)
> 
> Want more mer and can't wait? then why don't you [click click click tap tap tap](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't yet, try following us! We post more stories as Twitter threads [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)
> 
> Like what we do? click [this cool link to find us other places!](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)

~💧~

Thank high heaven for Pidge. 

Lance had been useless about the whole thing, but she’d set up an escape plan that could bust Keith out. Like, a legit heist. She’d made a special keycard for Lance so his name wouldn’t be on the computer’s logs and downloaded the schedule of the entire building to plan their route. The idea was that she would hack into the security camera system and feed them a loop of empty corridors so that Lance could fishnap Beautiful. The loop would give him approximately 45 minutes altogether to get in, get fish, get out. 

While she was hard at work with logistics and hacking Galra Bio’s system, Lance continued to visit Beautiful at night. The fish in the freezer were no longer stocked and he had to bring some from the dolphins’. He tried to bring as many as he could without getting caught. Beautiful’s ribs were sharp against his skin still and Lance was determined to get him _something._

He’d told Beautiful about the plan the night before he was going to break him out. Beautiful had seemed reluctant, but Lance hadn’t really allowed room for any arguments. The most Beautiful could do was continue to emphatically sign _safe_ over and over. The truth was, if Lance didn’t steal him now, he’d die within days. So it was worth the risk. To Lance, he would always be worth the risk. All life was.

The day of the fish heist, he was all nerves. He did his best to get through work, but it was hard when he knew this wouldn’t be his job anymore. Any mistake he made was a mistake he’d never have to worry about again. Zethrid was giving him strange looks and he knew he was letting her down. He could tell by the way she stopped joking with him and would scowl without corrections. 

Maybe that wasn’t the best way to stay inconspicuous, but he still made it to the end of the day without much more than a reprimand. Zethrid was a little too good at pinpointing his insecurities. Even knowing this was the end of the line for him at Galra Bio, he still filled out an apology note with how to correct his behavior in a live lab setting. She’d been a good teacher after all.

Once the building shut down and the emergency lights flicked on it was time to get Beautiful out of there. Lance folded his apology letter and placed it on Zethrid’s desk before heading to the storage unit for the mammals. Swiping his hacked key card, the door unlocked with a click. _One down_. 

The mobile tank they used to transport the smaller mammals was still there. Packing it with a few supplies and starting the engine, Lance drove it to the off-limits area where Beautiful was housed. Thank goodness for the silent battery-powered cart. Despite the size of the tank he was hauling, the whole apparatus barely made more than a hum. The time he had taken to memorize the patrol schedules paid off as well and no guards passed him in the hall. That, and Pidge whispering in his earpiece to alert him when it was safe. 

In the cart, Lance felt exposed. He had been sure this was the part of the plan where he'd get caught _,_ but with Pidge watching the actual camera feeds, he didn’t see a single guard. Beautiful’s room was right up ahead and he jumped out as the cart rolled to a stop. He grabbed his supplies and hauled ass. Like every time before, the door had no security and Lance walked right in. 

Beautiful was floating listlessly in the insultingly small tube, folded nearly in half and looking more like a creature preserved in formaldehyde than a living being. When he noticed Lance, however, his eyes lit up - literally, as they warmed with a faint purple glow. He pressed his face and both hands to the glass, trying to see what Lance was up to. 

"Hey Beautiful, I'm back, and I got you a ride." Lance waved the heavy-duty wire cutters he'd brought. "I'm going to cut you out, so wait here,” Lance said as he signed the words, keeping his smile natural and his voice bright. Beautiful looked bad. Really bad. If he'd waited even a day… 

Shaking dark thoughts from his head, he climbed the stairs to the top of the grate. Rolling his shoulders a few times, he set about snipping thick cord after thick cord of wire. A few times he had to pull out his saw to make notches for the cutters to follow. It was loud - far louder than he’d expected, and he winced at every shriek of metal hitting metal at the wrong angle. Shards of the grate fell into the pool, making him glad that he’d kept Beautiful safe in the tube. 

It took him a half hour to cut a hole wide enough for Beautiful to fit through - way longer than planned. Lance tucked a towel over the jagged ends so Beautiful wouldn't cut himself. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best he could do. Escape hatch ready, Lance turned to free him from the observation tank.

“C’mon buddy, time to go.” When he pushed the release button, Beautiful splashed into the pool, taking a moment to stretch and unfurl his cramped, crumpled fins. When he surfaced, he looked at Lance through the hole in the grate with definite awe and more than a little confusion. As he did, the slits of his nose expanded and lengthened until it was perfectly human. The gills along his collarbone flattened and sealed into his flesh. Then he took in a deep, gasping breath of air through his mouth and let it out on a shudder. Then another. And another. 

When he looked up at Lance again, he smiled. And then, because he wasn’t incredible enough as he was, Beautiful spoke. 

“You.” His voice was, somehow, both raspy and liquid at the same time, as if the notes were tumbling over each other, fighting for dominance in each syllable. “You are here.” 

“You can talk?” Lance shook his head in amazement. “I mean you could sign and sing, but you speak _English_. With your mouth.” His hands half-signed out of habit.

“So do you,” Beautiful argued back logically. 

“I- that’s not - okay, but that’s not the point. I need to get you into the cart.” Lance held out his arms. “Can you make it out?”

Beautiful reached up to latch onto Lance’s arms and allowed himself to be lifted enough that he could sit on the edge of the hole and hoist his massive tail up on his own. 

“The cart is just outside the door. I really hope I’m strong enough to carry you.” The flash of white from Beautiful’s wound reinforced the urgency that hung over Lance like a ticking time bomb. “Hold on tight, okay?” Lance slipped his arms around Beautiful’s back and under his fin.

“Yes.” Beautiful looped his arms around Lance’s neck and pulled his tail up to make himself more compact.

The full weight of the fishman hit him with a grunt. Even so, Beautiful still wasn’t as heavy as Lance thought he should be. Part of him was thankful that he was light enough to carry. That didn’t make it okay, but it did make it easier to escape.

Outside of the water, he was just as beautiful as his name. His skin glistened like it was made out of small shards of glass. Violet eyes were surrounded by thick lashes and the hair on his head was definitely not tentacles of any kind. It was soft and silky, even when wet. Lance blushed and coughed. 

“Ten minutes,” Pidge’s voice warned in his ear.

“Hang on,” he told Beautiful as he carried him to the cart. Carefully, Lance placed him in the tank. Phase one complete. He’d done it! Now, to get Beautiful the heck out of there.

Beautiful flopped around until he was on his belly, then pulled himself up by the back of the driver’s seat headrest so that he could talk to Lance. “Danger...ful. For you, Lance. You can leave me before the danger.”

"I didn't risk my job to save you just to quit halfway." Lance pressed the pedal down and the cart screeched forward as the wheels tried to find traction on the slick floor. "Pidge is waiting for us and we’re running out of time."

As if on cue, Pidge’s voice crackled through the earpiece. “Are you done yet? You’ve got less than eight minutes before the loop comes back.”

"Going as fast as we can." Lance checked behind him and came nose to nose with Beautiful. He cleared his throat and swung back around. "Don't worry," Lance assured him."I'll make sure you're safe." 

“Alright Lance,” Beautiful said, warm and a little warbling, like there was water somewhere in his vocal cords. And there might’ve been, who even knew. A few minutes ago, Lance hadn’t even known he could talk. “Thank you, Lance.”

"Of course. Anyone else would do the same." Lance did his best to concentrate on driving and not the fact that he was stealing a priceless scientific discovery from the biggest biotech company in the world. Beautiful was as much a _person_ as Lance and _people_ didn’t deserve to be put in cages and experimented on.

They took their escape ridiculously slow for a heist getaway. For one, the cart was only designed to go at turtle speed for the safety of the animals. Second, they had to wait for the guards to pass on their rotation before they could use the empty window between patrols to clear each hallway. After three intersections, there was only one more to go before they made it to the supply dock that backed to the wharf for deliveries. Pidge would be waiting there with the van, and they’d be free. 

It…was way too easy. Where were the alarms and the security? There was no way Lance had executed a heist of this scale better than Hollywood. All of his nerves told him this was a trap. He was being set up. That was why he’d never gotten caught all those days visiting Beautiful; they’d known what he was going to do all along, and any minute now they’d be surrounded. Lance pressed down harder on the pedal but it was already flush with the floor. 

Then, when there should _not_ have been, there came the sound of footsteps, walking too fast for a regular patrol. They sounded close. Way too close. 

Shit. “Pidge, Pidge, Pidge. What’s going on?” Lance hissed. He’d miscalculated, or the feed had come back early. His best guess was that whoever it was would find them in the next few seconds if he didn’t think fast, but there wasn’t much he could do. The hallway was long, relatively narrow, and there was nowhere to go besides backward or forwards. They were trapped. 

“Fuck.” Lance slammed on the breaks. He’d fight whoever it was or pick up Beautiful and run the hell away. Whatever. It didn’t matter. They were too close to freedom to be stopped here.

A security guard, at least 6’5 and built like a brick wall, turned the corner with a flashlight. As soon as the beam hit them, the guard reached for his belt. “Hey! What the hell are you d-”

Lance froze. 

There was a weird sound, something like music but more discordant, sonorous, reverberating against the walls. Almost as soon as the guard started to yell, he stopped in place. He stared blankly at them, then clicked his flashlight off, turned, and walked back the way he’d come. 

As soon as he was gone, Lance didn’t even think, he just floored it. “Fucking good work, Pidge.”

“For what? Nevermind, no time, door’s opening...now.”

The retractable door at the end of the hallway began to rise and Pidge’s delivery van came careening to a stop. She immediately hopped out, waving him over frantically. “C’mon, c’mon, step on it.”

He was already going as fast as the little cart could, and it was faster than he’d be on foot. Spinning the wheel as he slammed on the break, the cart skidded to a stop. Beautiful lost his grip on the seat and slipped underwater, leaving only his long black tail shimmering in the moonlight. “I made it,” Lance said, panting as if he’d run the whole way.

“Not out of the woods until we’re all home and identity-cloaked, so let’s move the fuck along.” Without any more preamble, Pidge chucked a black tarp at Lance. “Put this over its tank while I lower the lift, then you can drive the cart straight in.” 

“Aye aye, cap’n.” Lance mock saluted. He turned to Beautiful and held up the tarp. “It’s going to be dark and a tight fit. Think you can handle it?”

Beautiful gave him a dry look. “Oh, that is good. I started to miss my tube.”

Lance frowned. Maybe he could hold him the whole way. No, he’d dry out; but if he didn’t put the tarp on… 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t think - Oh man, this was stupid. I should’ve realized.” He wrung the tarp in his hands and it crinkled. 

Beautiful relaxed into a smile. “Don’t be sorry, Lance. I’m doing humor with you.”

“Cute.” Lance laughed, stilted and short. “We can do more humor once you’re safe.” 

Holding up the tarp, he slowly placed it over Beautiful's tail. “If you get scared, I’ll be right next to you. I’ll talk the whole time and if you need me just knock, okay?”

Nodding, Beautiful sank down into the tank, flattening himself and curling up as best he could. The tank was fine for a listless dolphin, but Beautiful was almost twice that length. At least it wasn’t backlit in the eerie green of his tube. Before the tarp went over entirely, he gave Lance a little wave and his much-favored thumbs up.

Lance’s heart clenched. How could anyone be so adorable? He hated to seal Beautiful away when he was always trapped in small spaces, and it wasn’t like it would get better at Lance’s apartment. His bathtub wasn’t a horrible size, it fit him and he was quite tall, but there was no way it’d fit all that tail. “We’ll be home before you know it,” he said and secured the tarp in place. 

~💧~

Pidge parked outside of Lance’s apartment with a sigh. She leaned against the steering wheel and sent him a tired look over her shoulder. “We’re here. Don’t get caught until I can get you to a safe house.”

Lance sat up from beside the tank where he’d been talking nonsense in a low voice. “I’ll do my best. Thanks, Pidge.” Reaching between the seats, he ruffled her hair. She swayed as he used her head as leverage to push himself back. “Help me carry him inside?”

“Not on your life. Take your contraband upstairs by yourself. I warned you not to get the third floor.”

“There’s less bugs,” Lance said with a pout. 

“Excuses.” Pidge waved him off. “Besides, I don’t want to see him for the first time until I can really get a good look. Now get out of my van.” Her voice softened a little as she fixed him with a meaningful look. “Lay low. I mean it.” 

Lance nodded and waved. He owed Pidge more than he could ever repay in a lifetime. For now though, he needed to figure out how to take care of a fishman in his tiny apartment.

Beautiful was hunkered down in the tank when Lance pulled off the tarp. As soon as the light fell on him, he cringed before realizing it was Lance. Relaxing a bit, he stuck his head above the waterline. 

“Safe?” 

“Safe as we can be.” Lance said, scooting to open the back of the van. He kicked both doors wide and held them steady with his feet. It was going to be all sorts of awkward getting him out and all sorts of tiring to get him upstairs. “I hope you like bathtubs.” He held out his arms.

Beautiful helpfully climbed into Lance’s hold. “What is bathtubs?” 

“Oh boy, are you in for a surprise.” Lance scooted on his butt, using his heels to dig into the mat and pull himself forward. He balanced Beautiful in his lap, rocking them back and forth with every scoot.

“Lance?”

“Yes?” Lance kept scooting, inch by inch, towards the open doors.

“Thank you.” Beautiful’s eyes were full, gratitude and relief and the first spark of happiness all mingling in the violet light. 

“Oh.” Lance paused and took a good look at Beautiful. His heart fluttered and he went back to clawing his way out with his heels to try and ignore it. “Don’t thank me yet. There’s still a chance we can get caught.”

“But thank you.” Beautiful smiled. “Trying is good.”

“You’re welcome.” A blush bloomed across his cheeks and he felt the need to explain away his actions. “I would’ve done it for anyone. It was inhumane what they were putting you through.” His butt finally found the edge of the van and he carefully placed his feet on the ground.

“Anyone,” the merman repeated, more to himself and Lance’s chest. 

Carrying Beautiful up the stairs was harder for different reasons than he’d expected. He’d assumed that Beautiful’s weight would make him struggle up the concrete steps. It wasn’t easy, but it also wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was how narrow the stairs were. He had to walk sideways to keep Beautiful’s tail from slapping against the metal railing. Lance was only able to switch his leading leg at every landing and his muscles ached with the strang position.

He shuffled around to get to his keys and bounced the fishman a few times to open the lock. The door slammed shut behind him. His arms ached and he was worried that he’d drop Beautiful if he didn’t get him in the tub _now._

Speed walking to the bathroom, Lance slammed the door open with his hip. As carefully as he could, despite his burning muscles, he lowered Beautiful into the tub. “You,” he panted, “okay?”

Beautiful looked around, trying to decipher exactly what he was sitting in. “Okay,” he confirmed, letting his tail trail over the lip and across the bathroom floor. “You? Heavy?”

“You’re not light. Especially after three flights of stairs. I really should’ve planned this better.” Lance leaned over to the tap and paused. “What temperature do you want the water?”

“Water? Not hot.” When Lance turned on the spout, Beautiful startled and squeaked. 

“Too cold?” He turned the dial a little to warm it, holding his hand under the water to check it. 

“Not cold.” Beautiful peered at the spout. “Surprise.”

“Do you like it? You can add more water whenever you want by turning this and you can change the temperature with this one.” Lance pointed to each and then down. “If you want to refresh the water, pull this plug. It’ll leave and you can add more.”

Beautiful’s black tail slapped a few times against the tile. “Bath,” he said, tasting the word. “Baaath.” 

Lance sat back on the bathmat and watched the water fill. “Now that I know you can talk, how about you teach me your name? Do you have a name that’s a little more...easy for me to say?”

Beautiful blinked both eyelids at him. “One name. Say my name again.” 

“I really don’t remember it,” Lance said as a disclaimer. He tried anyway, humming and clicking in what he sort of remembered.

Opening his mouth, Beautiful let out a long screech that rattled the windows and caused ripples in the bathwater. 

“Stop! Stop!” Lance clamped his hands over his ears. 

Beautiful clamped his mouth shut and frowned at Lance. “My name!” he insisted. 

“Well it hurts!” At Beautiful’s face crumpling, Lance sucked in a breath and lowered his hands. “Sorry, that was just…a lot out of the water. I don’t think I’ll be able to say your name anyway.”

The purse of his lips made Beautiful look awfully sulky for a bioluminescent man-fish with a mouth full of serrated teeth. “ _You_ pick my name.” 

Lance felt even worse. He wanted to say his name right, he just didn’t have the correct equipment. Whenever Beautiful spoke underwater it was like an arpeggio. Lance didn’t have that kind of talent with his human vocal cords. 

“If you really don’t mind me naming you…” Lance thought about the screech from Beautiful. He’d like to match it as close as possible. “K- Keee. Um. “Keekthhh. Keith? How do you like Keith?”

“Keeeee,” Beautiful tried. “Keef. Keethuh?”

"Kee-thh," Lance sounded it out for him. "Keith." 

He smiled. “You like my name? I like my name.” 

"It's definitely more name-like than Beautiful. You don't sound like a pet anymore. You're your own…fish." 

“Keith,” said Keith. “And Lance. La-nn-ss. Better above water.” 

Lance found himself leaning over the bathtub. He reached out and held his hand up like they did when there had been a wall of thick glass between them."Yeah, Keith and Lance." 

Keith happily reached up to fit his hand to Lance’s. Despite the webbing, they were an almost perfect match. 

"It's nice to finally be able to touch you." Lance stared at their hands. He'd been conversing with Keith for a little over a month, but this was the first time he felt so connected. 

“Oh, I can…” 

As he spoke, Keith’s hand changed and the webbing retracted enough for him to unabashedly lace their fingers together. “There,” he declared. “Nice _more._ ”

It _was_ nicer. Beau- Keith was soft and surprisingly warm. Lance ducked his head, hiding the redness in his cheeks. "How long have you been alone?"

“Mmm.” Keith seemed to think this over. “Small...maybe...eight? For humans? Before my back fins. Young.” 

Lance had meant at Galra Bio, locked in a cage. Apparently Keith’s life had been more tragic than he'd thought. Keith had mentioned that his parents were gone, but at such a young age…It was strange that he'd survived so long. It wasn't healthy to be alone like that. 

The tub was glugging down excess water. "I have so many questions, but you need to rest." Lance reached across their linked hands and turned off the water.

Keith wiggled down until his torso and the top of his tail were mostly submerged and sighed - in through his lungs, out through his gills. “You save - d. Saved? Me. I will answer.”

“In the morning.” Lance yawned. He squeezed Keith’s hand and placed it in the water. “We both need our sleep. Do you need anything before I go to bed? Glass of water, well…I guess you’re _in_ water.”

Keith shook his head. “Safe sleep, Lance.” 

“G’night, Beau- _Keith_.”

Lance decided to forgo his usual eye mask and headphone sleepwear. With Keith here he needed to make sure he could hear if he needed help or if Galra Bio was banging down his door. Opting for an oversized shirt, he slid between the sheets. The sheets were cold as they settled around his bare legs. 

After the exhausting day, sleep came fast. Soon he was lightly snoring, spread out like a starfish.

Sometime later, there was a shift in the atmosphere, barely more than a whisper of air as Lance’s shoulder was exposed, the covers pulling back. This was accompanied by a dim, purple-ish glow lighting the dark behind his closed eyelids. 

Squeezing his eyes shut, Lance turned over. The light followed him. He flopped onto his other side, but it was still there. "Ugh, what the hell?" he mumbled, kicking off the covers. He sat up to turn whatever it was off, only to be met with two large, luminescent purple eyes about two inches away from his face as if floating detached in the darkness. 

Lance screamed. 

Keith hissed. 

"Holy fucking shit." Lance whispered, clutching his nightshirt as his eyes adjusted and his heart calmed. "It's you." 

“Me,” Keith agreed, in that strange wispy-gurgle accent of his. He was obviously trying to mimic the way Lance was speaking. “Lance?” 

“You can’t _do_ that. You’re going to give me a heart attack.” Lance sat back against the headboard and looked at Keith now that he could make out his face. “What’s wrong?”

“...Nothing,” Keith said, those purple lamplight eyes darting to the right to illuminate Lance’s nightstand as he averted his gaze. As his eyes adjusted, Lance could also make out that Keith had helped himself to Lance’s windbreaker and was toying with the oversized sleeves. Altogether, he looked...well, nervous? Shy? “...Should leave?”

“No you don’t have to…” Lance blinked sleepy eyes as his brain tried to piece together what was happening. What did Keith want and why was he here in Lance’s room hovering over his bed? Wait. Shouldn’t Keith be in the tub? “OhmygodKeith.” Two bare legs were sticking out of his windbreaker. “Legs. How? How legs?” He pointed down to where Keith’s tail used to be. 

Keith made a face, as if he couldn’t believe Lance was asking that question. “Had tail. Now legs. Tail again when wet.” 

Lance gaped at him. He must still be asleep. This was all a dream. It was probably best to just go with it and laugh about it in the morning. “Right, of course. You have legs and I have to sleep. Why don’t we both go to bed?”

Keith shuffled around again, looking undecided, the jacket sleeve getting another twist in its cuff. “Bed...here?” 

“You want to sleep with me?” It was a small bed; he only had a full which fit him quite comfortably but was never good for company, which was why he usually opted to stay overnight at a fling’s house rather than invite them here. 

About to say no, he hesitated. Keith looked…scared. That’s what it was. Maybe a little nervous and shy but that was definitely fear behind those glowing eyes. Of course he was scared, anyone would be in his situation. Lance scooted over enough for Keith to join him. “It’s a tight fit, but you’re welcome to join me if you want.”

The purple light danced left and right as Keith shifted his weight, debating with himself. Finally, with his bottom lip gone mauve from where his sharp teeth had worried it raw, he nodded and reached forwards. When his hands hit the mattress and it dipped down, he yanked his arms back to his chest and looked at Lance, betrayed and confused. “It eats?!” he demanded. 

“What? No. It’s not alive.” Lance bounced a little on the mattress. “It’s just soft. Here, try.” He patted the spot next to him.

Dubious - _extremely_ dubious - Keith lowered himself to his hands and knees on the bed, looking at Lance for confirmation. At the sleepy nod he got, he shifted his knees to lower himself down, laying very stiffly but still face-to-face with Lance. 

“Good job. See? Not alive. Not eating you.” Lance’s eyes were already betraying him as he fought to keep them open. He put what he hoped was a comforting hand on Keith’s arm to pet him as he settled down to sleep. His hand paused now and then when he dipped into sleep. 

It was so comfortable even with two people. Usually, he felt cramped and had no place to put his legs, but somehow this didn’t feel cramped at all. There was plenty of room and it was nice to be able to stretch out next to someone. It was like his bed had expanded, but that was stupid. “Sorry if I cuddle you in my sleep,” Lance mumbled, already halfway there.

With a wiggling shuffle, Keith buried himself into the mattress and closer into Lance’s embrace so that his lazy petting was now a loose hug. Bumping his nose to Lance’s, he gave the tip of it a warm lick. “Thanks. Lance.” 

Lance’s eyes jolted open then slowly fell back down. He wiggled his nose and sniffed. “Anything for you, Beautiful.” And he was asleep.

~💧~ 

The sun filtered golden through the slightly parted curtains. A perfect beam shone through the crack straight into Lance’s eyes. Moaning, he curled away, burying his face into warm skin and wrapping himself tighter around it. 

Wait. Last night came rushing back and his eyes shot open. Keith. Keith was there in his bed and Lance had his arms wrapped around his middle and one leg slung over his thighs. The fishboy snored like gurgling coffee, his mouth hanging open. It gave Lance an up close and personal view of the many _many_ sharp teeth in his mouth. 

None of last night had been a dream. He’d stolen GalraBio’s property and hid him in his own home. Not just that, but the weird dream about Keith with legs was also apparently reality. He could tell because he was all up on them. He unwrapped himself and squirmed backward as fast as he could. For a terrifying moment, he realized he’d found the edge of the bed and teetered. Then fell with a squeak of surprise. 

Keith’s wild nest of hair peeked over the bed, followed by his sleepy eyes. When he spoke, it was rusty water through pipes, “Lance? Why falling? I was warm.” 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to get all up in your business.” Lance stood and shuffled sideways a few steps, not sure where to go. 

“Come back,” Keith...pouted. Yeah, he was definitely pouting. “Cold now. Your body blood was very pleasant.”

“That’s not a very comforting sentence. We need to work on your English.” Lance took a step towards the bed and paused. It was different to touch a very human-looking Keith. Before it was like touching his dolphins, animals to which he had no attraction. Not now. Now, Keith was hot. And not in a boy across the street way or even in an untouchable celebrity way; he was hot in an unsettling, _enchanting_ kind of way. It made Lance want to do whatever he said. 

So he did. Despite the strangeness of it and despite the feelings growing inside him, he climbed in and held open his arms.

Keith contented himself by wriggling his way into Lance’s hold, windbreaker sliding down to expose his bare shoulders. “Thank you,” he said, voice bordering on over-polite. 

Lance swallowed. “Uh, Keith? Where did you find my jacket?”

“In a small room. In the long room.” 

“Did you also happen to find any underwear?” Lance wasn’t sure which answer he wanted to hear. Either Keith was completely naked under that jacket or he was wearing a pair of his underwear. He should’ve escaped when he had the chance.

“I do not know that word,” Keith said blithely, pressing closer to take in Lance’s body heat. 

Okay, different question. “Are you wearing anything else besides my jacket?” 

Keith nodded. “Legs.” 

“Give me strength,” Lance murmured to no one in particular. Any help would be welcome no matter which god heard his plea. Like a switch, those words sunk in. Lance turned wide eyes on Keith. “You have legs. How are you able to have legs?”

“Oh.” Keith’s thick brows furrowed in on themselves as he apparently thought of a way to describe it. “I wanted them. So I made them. See?” He unzipped and parted the jacket, showing off his naked human body, covered occasionally with patches of shiny black or purple scales. “They okay?” 

Lance’s hands whipped out and pulled the jacket closed, but it was too late. He’d already seen everything. Or, well, Keith’s nothing. He was smooth as a plastic doll _down there_ . Only a patch of scales that glinted like a rainbow in oil took up the space where _something_ should’ve been. Despite trying to keep Keith’s privacy, the image was burned in his mind. “They’re very nice, you did a great job.” He was never asking anything like that again. Keith’s legs were a mystery best left for someone with an actual degree and some guts. 

“Thank you,” Keith said primly. 

“Are you hungry?” Lance said, voice cracking as he tried to keep his cool. “I can make breakfast.” 

Keith perked up. “Fishing?” 

"Uh, no. I have canned tuna and I might have some tilapia in the freezer if you want fish." Maybe he should have run to the fish market before he kidnapped Keith...

As it turned out, Lance _really_ should have gone to the fish market because Keith treated canned tuna like it had personally offended him, his ancestors, and the entire ocean at the same time. As soon as Lance had peeled the lid off, Keith started hissing - actually hissing and screeching and okay, no one _liked_ the smell of a tuna fish sandwich but it wasn’t _that_ bad. Until Keith haltingly explained that, as best as Lance could understand, tinned tuna smell was about on par with preserved but decaying corpse. Flesh kept fresh beyond its time. 

Which. Made a weird sort of sense. 

So no tuna. Keith was making due with the frozen tilapia, alternating between gnawing on it and glaring at it for being so cold and hard to chew. 

Lance nibbled on his own eggs with toast as he watched Keith. "Do you wanna come shopping with me? You can pick out your own fish." 

Keith looked up at him through his tangled, disheveled bangs, mid-gnaw. He pulled off and licked his lips. “Hunting? Both of us?” 

"I guess it's a kind of hunting, especially if you're trying to find something but don't know what aisle it's on." Lance chuckled to himself. "We could make a day of it. Get you some of your own clothes." The jacket was hanging open and Keith's only modesty was the cover of the table. 

“Clothes,” Keith echoed whinily, scrunching up his nose. “Why not your clothes? These clothes smell…” he paused, searching his bizarre collection of English phrasing for the word he wanted. “Delightful?” 

Lance hid behind his toast. Did Keith think _he_ smelled delightful too? "My clothes are too big for you. You're practically drowning." 

Keith threw a chunk of frozen fish at him. “I would never _drown_!” 

"I don't mean _actually_ drowning. Sheesh." Lance picked the fish from his lap and threw it back. "I mean that they don't fit you. Where did you learn English anyway. Doesn't your native language have metaphors?" 

“Sailors,” Keith said, catching the piece and swallowing. “We learn human languages in the pod, but I was forbidden. So I listen to the ships.” He gave a cocky little smirk. “Good at it, right?” 

Lance whistled low. "You learned just from listening to sailors? It took me years to catch up and I had lessons." He took a huge bite to finish off his breakfast and chewed around his words, "Want me to teach you? I know some tricks since it's my second language." 

Keith gave him a small smile. “Yes thank you please. While we go hunting?” 

"Sure. But it's not really hunting, it's grocery shopping. I don't want you to get disappointed." 

~💧~

Keith was clearly disappointed. 

“It is not hunting if they are dead,” he grumbled, sniffing at the row of fish on ice, dead eyes staring and mouths gaping. 

"I warned you." Lance pointed at a yellow price tag with red numbers stamped over it. "The salmon is on sale, lucky! Which one do you want?" 

“The salmon was fresh caught this morning. We also have a good deal on Alaskan snow crab," a bubbly girl from behind the counter helpfully pointed out. "Buy two get one half price!" 

Keith picked up a salmon that was frowning at the ceiling and sighed, biting its head off entirely. 

"Keith!" 

"Sir, you have to pay for that." She was way too calm for this to have been the first time someone had done such a thing in front of her, and that made Lance more worried. 

He turned a sweet smile on the worker as he tried to grapple the fish from Keith. "Sorry about that, it's his first time. We'll definitely- pay- for- this," he punctuated each word with a tug. 

With a confused and irritated _pleh,_ Keith let the mutilated remains of the salmon go. “You say choose and I choose and then you want it back? If you want this fish, I would not take the fish!” 

"Can you wrap this for us? Thanks. We'll be right back." Land handed the mangled carcass over the counter then pulled Keith towards the baked goods where it was quieter. 

"Keith, this is your first lesson. You listening?" 

Keith pouted, blowing his bangs from his face. But his eyes were on Lance. 

"Everything in this store requires money. If you want something you have to pay for it first." Lance pulled out his wallet and showed Keith his card. "See? We use this to buy the food. Then we can take it home to eat. We can't bite the heads off fish we didn't use the card for." 

“Card is small and not sharp. No point using it on fish.” Keith swiped it from Lance’s hand and examined it. “Not money. Money is heavy, made of circles, sinks fast. Always in boxes.” 

"You've seen real life sunken treasure?” That was a fantasy come to life. What Lance wouldn’t give to see it for himself. “When I was a kid I used to dream about diving so deep that I found all the lost treasure since the beginning of time and--" Lance shook his head as Keith’s eyes narrowed. "Sorry. It's just, that's really cool." He cleared his throat and took his card back. 

Keith evidently knew enough slang to understand the sentiment. He gave Lance a quiet, crooked smile. “I was not supposed to. But it was too _cool_ to stop. Your kind loses so much down there.”

"Not supposed to? Are you the little mermaid or something? Daddy forbid you to collect thingamabobs?" Lance chuckled at his own joke. "Who knew Disney was so accurate." 

“Human things and human scent attract humans and humans bring death,” Keith said matter-of-factly. “Anyone with human scent on them means danger to the pod."

That was hard to hear. Of course he knew that humans were destroying the ocean and overfishing was killing whole species. But, for a creature of the ocean to admit it so bluntly made shame bloom hot in his chest. "Sorry," he said on behalf of the entire human race. 

“Okay,” Keith acquiesced. “No biting. Just using the stupid card.”

Lance ruffled his hair. "Good fishie. Just sit back and watch. I'll get you any food you want."

Luckily for them both, the clientele at this trendy, crunchy grocery store seemed disinclined to care about them. Keith’s outfit, however, earned them a few glances. Lance had let Keith pick out whatever he’d wanted to wear from his closet and the result was interesting at best. That left Keith walking the aisles with his black hair in a haphazard bun on top of his head, a sequin crop top, and a pair of gym shorts that had definitely belonged to a Lance under the age of Learner’s Permit. Other than that, they were able to shop unhindered by more than the occasional knowing wink from a few nosy suburban moms. 

Keith didn’t even seem to notice. He was having the time of his life, evidently, ever since his attention had been derailed from the seafood section by the miracle that was produce. He had been dragging Lance around by the wrist for about half an hour, picking up and marveling over every colorful thing he could find. 

“And what is _this_?” He asked for the seven-millionth time. He shook a box of strawberries in Lance’s face. “Look Lance! Look how pretty!” 

"Strawberries. Yes, very pretty." Lance thought they'd only get seafood, but now their cart was full of everything Keith thought looked stupid or pretty. He could feel his bank account crying. "I think we have more than enough food. Why don't we get you some clothes now?" 

Keith looked down at himself and back up. “Why? Why so many clothes? These are clothes.”

"Those are _my_ clothes. We're going to get you _your own_ clothes." Lance changed direction as Keith added the strawberries to his pile of assorted food. "Let's check out and you can eat anything you want in the car." 

“Humans make no sense,” Keith grumbled as he followed, snagging an artichoke as they walked and hissing at it when it pricked him. 

Keith was going to break him. Over a hundred bucks in random groceries and Lance was pretty sure Keith would hate half the stuff. He couldn't help but to indulge him though. It was too fun to watch Keith experience things for the first time. 

Reusable totes filled to the brim, they managed to shove all of them into Lance's trunk. Thankfully, Keith wanted nothing to do with the frozen food after this morning's tilapia incident, so they didn’t have to worry about anything melting. It would all stay safe and snug in the back of Lance’s car.

Clothes were a different beast. Lance wasn't sure where to bring Keith shopping. He normally bought his clothes online. He was pretty sure there was a Forever21 fairly close. And, if he wasn’t wrong, there were a few other clothing shops around it, so Keith would have a few options. 

On the way there, he showed Keith the wonders of Spotify. He immediately regretted it when Keith decided _country_ was his favorite. By the time they pulled into the shopping center, it wasn't soon enough. With a thankful twist of the key, the car shut off and the music abruptly ended. 

"We're here.” Lance eyed the stores. “Hmm. We should get you some underwear too." 

Keith was preoccupied by staring at the number of people coming and going. “...In there? With...so many?” 

"Yeah. I guess it's pretty busy today. Are you nervous?" Lance brushed his knuckles down the length of Keith's arm. 

Keith shivered and gave a pleased little chirp at the sensation but did look at Lance with worried purple eyes. “Yes. So many in one place? In the ocean, certain death.”

_Oh._ "Hey, this isn't the ocean. And you have me!" Lance smiled and he hoped it was reassuring. "I promise no one will hurt you while I'm around, but if it helps, I can hold your hand the whole time." 

Keith didn’t seem at all opposed - just confused. “And that will keep away predators?” 

"Uh, yeah. I guess it does." 

Nodding, Keith held out his hand. “Wise precaution.” 

They couldn’t actually join hands until they were out of the car, but Keith’s nervous grip on Lance’s fingers as they wove through the shopping center made him glad he had offered. Every time someone got too close, Keith would bristle and click low in his throat. Lance very quickly became an expert at playing shopping _Frogger_ , weaving them between crowds for Keith’s comfort and the safety of everyone else around him. 

Forever21, luckily, wasn't as crowded as it looked from the outside. At least it didn't _feel_ packed because the store was so huge. 

Keith’s already large eyes went even bigger when they entered, and he pressed close to Lance’s side. He seemed especially interested in the escalators between floors, watching them from a safe distance with mingled fascination and fear. “What,” he said, awestruck, “are those.” 

“Escalators; we can ride them to get between floors. Looks like men’s is on the 2nd floor, wanna try them?” Lance wasn’t sure if he’d ever get tired of the strange ways Keith reacted to mundane objects. He leaned in and wiggled his eyebrows. “They’re pretty fun.”

“Yes,” Keith said, emphatically pulling Lance towards them. “Let’s ride to find the men.” 

“Men’s clothes. There’s no men...well there are probably men there.” He shook his head. “It’s fine.” Lance let himself be dragged along with a smile on his face.

It was all fun and games until they were standing at the bottom of the escalator and Keith got a good look at them. His eyes followed one stair at a time as it emerged from seemingly nowhere and disappeared beyond where he could see. Tentatively, he took a step forward, but as soon as his foot began to leave without him, he panicked and pulled back. He wasn’t quite quick enough, though - his leg had extended far enough that he had no choice but to step entirely onto the escalator, legs awkwardly spaced apart. As he rose away, Keith looked behind him, panicking. “Lance!” 

Lance snapped out of it, trying not to laugh as he ran to catch up. He grabbed Keith under the armpits and lifted him down to his step. “You have to commit when you step on, otherwise that happens. You did good for your first time though.”

“You did not tell me it _stole_ people! It just - just carries! Without permission!” Keith was extremely incensed by his lack of agency in this situation, as evidenced by the flush on his pale cheeks and the sneaking reemergence of his sharper teeth. He grabbed onto Lance’s shoulders and dug his blunt, human-like nails in, glaring down at the escalator. 

Nodding, Lance pulled him close so he wouldn’t fall. He was normally a touchy person and Keith didn’t seem to mind physical contact at all. In fact he really seemed to enjoy touching Lance back. It was kinda nice to have someone to be so physical with. “When we get to the top, you gotta jump off. Think you can do that?”

Keith’s head snapped back up, and he nodded, determined. “I killed worse when hunting dark water.” 

“I’m sure you have,” Lance said, truthfully. He didn’t want to think about the kinds of deep-sea horrors Keith had fought. “Jump on three.” The escalator slowly climbed to the peak and Lance counted, “One, two, three!” He swung their joined hands as he jumped.

Obediently, Keith followed suit and they both landed safely at the top, hands still entwined. He was still for a moment, then snapped his head up with a wide, sharp-toothed smile. “Let’s do it _again_ ,” he said, with deep reverence. 

“We can do it again on the way down. First, you need to pick out clothes.” Lance swept his arm out in a flourish. “Welcome to clothes! C’mon, let’s find you something you like.”

Keith, having never had legs to dress before, was very averse to pants. He whined when he had to put them on and was relieved as soon as they came off. Shopping for clothes was turning out to be decidedly less fun than food had been, if only because it was very difficult to convince a merman why he needed to cover his body in things that, quote, “would drag you to the bottom” or “get tangled worse than a net.” Finally - _finally_ \- Keith had a pair of shorts, a few t-shirts, and jeans loose enough that he didn’t totally hate them. 

They were en route to the shoes when Keith spied something that had him dragging Lance over and pointing at a mannequin (which was progress, since Lance had taken nearly ten minutes to explain their purpose after Keith had been terrified by them). “This,” Keith proclaimed. 

“This?”

“This.”

“This” was a fluttery red skater-style sundress with crisscrossed straps over the chest. The skirt was voluminous in its pleating, making it look more like a flower than a dress. 

Keith leaned in and cupped a hand around Lance’s ear, whispering. “When I was a guppy, I wanted this, like the warm water clans. The prettiest fins. Not like mine.”

Lance begged to differ. He’d seen Keith’s tail and fins and there was no way anything could be more beautiful than his bioluminescence. “I doubt they’re prettier than you.” He checked the price tag on the dress and cringed. If they skipped the pants and put back one of the shirts, he could make it work. “Well the point of clothes is to match who you are on the inside. So, if you’re a tropical fish, then let’s get you a tropical fin, huh?”

It didn’t take long to find the dress on the rack and get Keith’s size. The dress came in red, blue, purple, and yellow, so Lance sent him to the dressing room with each color.

Trying on a dress was decidedly less complicated than pants, so Keith was relatively quick. He poked his head around the door of the dressing room. “Lance? This clothes is cold.” But he came out anyway, fussing self-consciously with the blue skirt. “I am cold.” 

Oh no, Keith looked _good._ His hair hung loose over the straps and the stretchy fabric hugged his small frame. All of a sudden the dress went from a joke to a necessity. "It's warm outside, so you won't be as cold out there." Lance took the jacket from around his waist and wrapped it around Keith. "How's it now?" 

Keith chirped and trilled his happy response, looking down at himself. “This color,” he said, then looked back up at Lance. “Looks like this color.” He pointed. 

There was a small moment of confusion before Lance realized Keith was pointing at his eyes. A fire lit in his chest. He shook his head. This was starting to feel more like a date than helping a fishman learn about clothes. Keith probably didn’t understand what he was saying. Didn’t get the subtext those words could carry. So, Lance quelled the flame. 

“The dress is more expensive than your other clothes; do you want it or the pants?” Lance held up the jeans.

Tugging Lance’s jacket around himself, Keith looked down and then over at the jeans, debating. Then he looked to Lance, an indiscernible expression on his face. “You know about clothes. You choose. Please?” 

The pants would be more socially appropriate but Keith was having so much fun in the dress and he looked so good and he’d disliked the pants so much...fuck it. Who said fish had to follow human gender norms? He’d been so excited to be a tropical fish that Lance couldn’t say no. “Let’s get you the dress. You wanna keep wearing it?”

Keith’s human teeth grinned back at him. “Yes. This color? The your-eyes blue? Or red like the.” He frowned. “What word do you call it. Warm water clans live there. Many turtles and corals. Many sharks.” He picked up a corner of the skirt and pulled it wide, considering. “Eyes are prettier.” 

“Uh, tropical?” It was an utter guess. 

Keith shrugged. “ _Many_ sharks.” 

“Try on the red one. Then we can decide.”

So Keith did. The dresses were identical, and where the blue one brought out the paleness of his skin, the red one definitely highlighted his dark hair and unusual eyes. 

“Would be nice,” Keith mused, looking at himself in the three way mirror, “to change tails like this. Like clothes. So, anyone born glow-marked could be...any other fin.” His voice went quiet. “A fin that makes no one afraid.” 

Lance took Keith’s hand and tugged. “C’mon, my little tropical fish, let’s get you both and you can wear them whenever you want.” Lotor had already put Keith through so much and it didn’t sound like his pod treated him any better. If Lance could give Keith even a small ray of sunshine in his life, it didn’t matter the cost.

“Ow,” Keith said bemusedly, allowing himself to be pulled along. He was touching his cheek and frowning, looking up at Lance in concern. “It’s hot! Why is my face hot?” 

Glancing back, Lance could see a faint blush brightening Keith's skin. He wasn't sure what to make of that. "I think you're blushing. It's nothing to worry about. It's normal." 

“Normal?! Humans heat inside for no reason? And it’s _normal_?!” He was still walking, still holding Lance’s hand, but his nose was wrinkled in distinct confusion and disgust. “Your species is so-“ a garbled, screechy word - “strange.” 

"Shh. Not so-” Lance smiled at a few of the looks from confused shoppers and they turned away. “Let’s keep the not-human part quiet,” Lance whispered, pulling Keith close. “And yes, blushing is normal. It usually means you’re feeling something very strongly. Maybe embarrassment or happiness or, um, attraction.”

“Oh.” Keith pressed himself a little tighter against Lance, closing what minute distance there already was. “That...seems correct.” 

“Right.” Lance was very, very tempted to ask which one was the correct one. Not that he wanted Keith to choose a specific answer. No. It wasn’t like that at all. It was because… He looked down at Keith attached to his arm and hissing at the person behind them. Keith didn’t have anyone else right now and Lance had no intention of exploiting that.

They were checked out quickly and Lance had them cut off the tag of Keith’s red dress so he could wear it out. It all went on his card but his wallet felt much lighter, even if it was digital. “You hungry? We could go home and you could try some of your new human food.”

Keith nodded. “Strawberries,” he confirmed. “NOT frozen.” 

They made it nearly to the car without incident, but that was because Keith was distracted by playing with his new tail. This was accompanied by a lot of “Lance, look!” or the occasional detour to go look at something or poke something, all of which required Lance to be hyper-vigilant and fleet footed. Luckily, he had nieces and nephews. Who would have thought babysitting was the sort of job experience required for caring for mermen instead of his very hard-won biology major? 

That all fell to the wayside when they exited the building to the plaza in front. 

“Oh, good,” Keith said with relief. Before Lance could register what that was in reference to, Keith was already heading for the big marble fountain and climbing in. 

“Keith, no!” It was already too late. Keith was sitting up to his waist in dirty fountain water. 

Black, iridescent scales popped up across Keith’s legs as he looked at Lance from his contented place sitting on the bottom of the fountain. “Legs are itchy,” he explained. 

“No, no, no, no.” Lance grabbed at Keith but he wiggled away. “Get out of there. You can’t do that. What if someone sees you?” He leaned over as far as he could and swiped for anything to grab hold of. Even in shallow water, Keith was fast. There was no way he’d get to him without getting wet.

With a few choice cuss words, Lance kicked off his shoes, emptied his pockets, and rolled up his pants to trot in after Keith. “Get back here and put your legs back on!” He splashed in the fountain, stalking towards Keith who kept slithering away.

“Your legs don’t get itchy,” Keith complained, legs now mostly black and beginning to fuse back together. His dress fanned prettily around it. “Come sit. Nice and cool.” He hissed when Lance made a grab for him and wriggled along the bottom like a pissy little eel. “Stop that!”

“Mommy, can I go too?” asked a child. Keith flashed shark teeth at him, sending the childing into a crying fit. 

“Oh my GOD!” Lance threw himself at Keith, in a desperate dive to close the distance between them. It worked; mostly. He had Keith clutched by his slippery almost-fin, hanging on for dear life. Keith kicked at him to make him let go and Lance gasped for air as he was pulled underwater with each kick. Fountain water choked him and he sputtered onto his knees, giving up.

There was a group forming, still far off, having stopped where they were to watch. Lance slapped the water as he sat in the fountain, defeated. His pockets floated to the surface like big balloons. “You’re a bad fish!” he scolded, anger lacing his words and turning them cold, “Very bad fish! You’re going to get us caught. Fuck. Fucking _shit_.”

Keith looked like he’d been struck. Immediately, he stopped squirming and hoisted himself onto the ledge by his arms. Wringing out the bottom of his dress, the sun and breeze of the warm day began to make quick work of drying his scales. 

Lance stood, shaking out his hair. "You can't do that in the middle of everyone.” The crowd was thick now. He swallowed down his panic. They were dead. “Shit, what are we going to do?" All the eyes were fixed to Keith's scaled legs that were changing back to human way too slow. "Lotor is going to find us and then what am I going to do? How am I supposed to keep you safe?" Taking over-exaggerated steps, he splashed toward Keith. 

Keith was flapping his hands to hurry the drying along as Lance lectured him. He stared up at Lance, apology sunk into every line of his face. Lance sighed. 

"Here, I'll carry you, we have to get out of here," he said, soft and resigned.

Before Lance could pick him up, a grumpy looking man stopped next to them, swaying on his Segway. He hoisted his belt up as he stepped off. “Sir, Ma’am, I’m going to need you to exit that fountain right this minute.”

"He's not…It doesn't matter, we're leaving." Lance grabbed Keith's wrist but Keith spun it out of his grip. “Keith we gotta-” He snapped his mouth shut at Keith signing, _no, I help._

Keith smiled up at the mall cop, all flat-teeth and innocent eyes. “Hello,” he purred. There was something about his voice - some kind of strange, ethereal resonance that wasn’t there when he spoke to Lance. “We are doing nothing. Nothing important. You should forget - forget, and leave. All of you.” 

In Lance’s head, it registered as words - just normal conversation, despite the reverberation. But it was layered with a faint musicality, a hollow sort of melody like a crystal being struck, or the multi-note tones of a panpipe. 

The police officer’s lids drooped. “I should forget and leave,” he agreed in a daze. 

"You should?" Lance looked between the mall cop and Keith. "How?" Even as he asked, the crowd dissipated as if they were all sleepwalking. 

Lance drooped, adrenaline leaving him. "What just happened?" 

“I sang,” Keith said sulkily, legs nearly split apart again. The scales turned grey and fleshy as they sank into his skin. With a frustrated sigh, he held his arms up to be carried. 

Now that he thought about it, it was quite song-like. Beautiful even. And terrifying. "It was pretty." Lance picked him up and held him close. Protective. It took all of his concentration to keep them both upright as he stepped onto solid ground. 

That earned him a grunt of a response and little else. 

"But why did everyone do what you said? Why didn't _I_ do it?" 

“I was singing,” Keith explained, “at them. Not you. Never you. I sing and most things listen, ever since I hatched.” He made a face between a grimace and a sneer. “Because I’m a _bad fish_.” 

"I'm sorry." Lance slipped into his shoes and bent to pick up his phone, teetering with the added weight. "I didn't mean to call you a bad fish. I got angry because I was worried for your safety. You're not a bad fish. A little naughty, but not bad." 

Keith tilted his head, puzzled. “Worried? For my...safety? For me?”

"Of course. I didn't get you away from Lotor just to have you hurt out here." Crossing the parking lot, everyone ignored them as if they weren't even there. “We're… friends, right? And friends don't want each other to get hurt." Lance let Keith slide to the ground as he pulled out his keys. 

“Friends…” Keith mulled that over as if it was a completely foreign concept. It made him smile, soft and sweet, at the asphalt. “Mm.”

The smile went straight to Lance’s heart. 

“Oh!” Keith seemed to pull himself from wherever he’d gone in his mind. “I found - for you -“ he said distractedly as he dug around in the hidden pockets of his dress skirt. “Here.” 

Opening his palm, Keith presented Lance with a handful of coins - mostly nondescript quarters and such, but also a dulled down Golden Eagle and a squashed penny that said WELCOME TO WYOMING! He smiled at Lance, purple eyes crinkling with mischief. “Sunken treasure. For you.” 

This was definitely the cutest present he'd ever received. "You are good at finding it, aren't you?" Lance clutched the damp coins and shoved them into his wet pocket. "Thanks, my good tropical fish." Opening the door, he let Keith in first, then squelched his way over to the driver's side and slid in. 

“Lance?”

"Hm?" 

“Thank you.” Keith was looking at his lap, at the damp red fabric clinging to his thighs. “And sorry.” 

"Don't worry about it. I guess you solved it with that singing you did. So it turned out alright." Lance flashed his eyes to Keith's and smiled before turning back to the road. "Maybe you could teach me how to do that. "

“You sing?” Keith asked eagerly. 

"Not as well as you." He definitely couldn't control people with his song. Lance turned down Keith's horrific country music. "I guess I could sing something for you after lunch. But, don't make fun of me." 

That seemed to make Keith _very_ squirmy and red. He pursed his lips against a smile and held his hands up, feeling his cheeks again and murmuring “ow” to the dashboard. 

Lance politely ignored it and drove them home. Keith was still muttering in those low clicks when he turned off the car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to our beta Mintusti!!! always putting up with our bullshit
> 
> Autumn: This is, without a doubt, my favorite chapter of anything we've ever written together. I mean, I say that, but then we write new chapters of things....anyway. We've been holding on to this for, like, seven months and I'm so fuckin stoked to finally be posting this. Maybe you hate it. I dunno. But this is my comfort chapter. Sail writes the sweetest Lance in this story and he's so patient and good...Anyway, MAJOR shoutout to Pretzellus for the sweetass art for this chapter. There's actually another one too, but. We're stingy and holding out. Anyway, enjoy  
> Sail: I'm honestly with Autumn on this one. I just fucking love this chapter? I've wanted to share every dumb moment in it but I had to *wait* for us to publish and that just *isn't fair* please PLEASE I'm begging you, I've waited FOREVER tell me all your favorite parts, because mine is def “Are you wearing anything else besides my jacket?” “Legs.” “Give me strength.” rip lance
> 
> [Pretzellus](https://twitter.com/jade_smania) did art for this chapter too and i'm cracking up 
> 
> If you haven't yet, try following us! We post more stories as Twitter threads [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)
> 
> Like what we do? Click [this cool link to find us other places!](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like what we do [consider joining us for extra benifits](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)
> 
> Like what we do? wanna hang out with us on Twitter? [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)

~💧~

Lunchtime had become an  _ experience _ .

Before, when Lance ate, it was usually as he stared at his phone and nibbled on whatever leftovers he could scavenge. Not anymore. Lance’s days of lonely phone time were long behind him. He had an entire other species to care for and feed and Keith ate a  _ lot _ . Lance sliced up another fish, stacking it on a plate. That would probably last him a few hours. He placed it in front of Keith, knocking him out of his reverie. 

“Here you are, lunch number three. Anything you want to go with it?”

Keith lit up. “Strawberries!” 

Lance laughed and set about cleaning and prepping the strawberries for Keith to snack on while Keith munched happily on his fish. “Munched” was probably the wrong word. He ripped at it with his teeth, shaking his head when the skin wouldn’t give. Lance set the bowl of cut strawberries down as he flipped a chair around and rested his arms on the back. Lance watched Keith swallow his last piece of fish and then pick up a berry and sniff it, a small smile playing on his lips.

Neither the smell nor the color, though both topics of interest for Keith, evidently could live up to the flavor of strawberries. The first bite he took, Keith went completely silent. Then he chewed. And chewed. And then made a keening, wondrous sound, like every good thing in the universe had just occurred inside his mouth. It was followed by an urgent “LllaaaA _ AANNNCCEE _ !” as Keith pressed the half-eaten berry to Lance’s lips, eager to share his discovery. He continued the bizarre sound until Lance opened his mouth to take a bite.

"Mm, yummy," Lance said like it was his first time. "You like them, I take it. Do you want more fish?” He nodded to the empty plate by Keith’s elbow. “Or, I could make you some of the other food you bought. I don't really know what you're supposed to eat." 

“Fish,” Keith answered. “All fish. Squid. Shellfish if the schools are thin. Always fish.” He licked at his pink-stained fingers. “Whatever I catch. Nothing like  _ this _ .” He looked around the kitchen. “What are you supposed to eat?” 

"Uh, anything I want. My favorite is my mom's flan." Lance swiped his thumb across the corner of Keith's rosy mouth. "You're all sticky." 

Keith’s tongue reached out to lick the pad of it as it brushed by. “What is flan? Where do we get ‘your mom’s flan?’” 

Lance chuckled, blushing as he pulled his thumb back. "That's for another day. Still hungry? You destroyed the fish I made you." ‘Made’ was a generous term. Slapped the fish down whole, bones and all, was more like it. 

“Yes. Yes more. And your mom’s flan.”

“I can make you flan on Saturday. Right now I’ll make you more fish.” Lance grabbed a few more fish from the fridge and put them on Keith’s plate.

Keith helped himself to half a salmon, shark teeth emerging to help him rip and swallow the pieces largely whole. They reverted to human again so he could lick his palm. “You have also,” he said, indicating the other half. “You eat.” 

“The fish is all for you. I’ll just have a sandwich.” He nodded to his poor sandwich, lying uneaten by the fridge. 

“Sandwich,” Keith repeated. “Ssand-wich.” He helped himself to the other half of the fish as well as several handfuls’ worth of berries. While Lance stood again to make his own lunch, Keith used a nail to start picking seeds off the outside of a strawberry and ate them one by one. 

Once he’d thoroughly stripped the berry of all its modesty, he popped it into his mouth whole. “No other humans here?” he asked, conversationally enough for someone who sort-of spoke English. 

“It’s just me.” Lance sat down and tore off a piece of his sandwich for Keith to try. “And you now, I guess.”

Keith accepted it and stared, growing quiet. “Not...forever.” 

Lance paused mid-bite. This was a conversation he’d been avoiding and he’d put it off long enough. Abandoning his sandwich, Lance made sure he had all of Keith’s focus. “No, not forever. Just for now; and not for very long. We might have to run away. They’re going to realize I’ve been gone ever since you were stolen and they’re going to come here.”

Sighing, Keith mimicked Lance and put the sandwich piece down on the table. “Where will you...place me?”

"I was planning on taking you home. To your home. Whatever part of the ocean that was, but I wanted to ask you about it." Lance sat back, studying Keith's face. “Where do you want me to take you?”

“The ocean is...where I survive. I do not - never - had home. No pod wants me. But. You have done very much. So much. You need  _ your _ home and freedom.” 

"I didn't ask you what I needed, I asked what you wanted." Lance realized his sandwich now lay torn in pieces so he moved on, ripping the paper towel he was using as a napkin. "I was talking to Pidge, you remember, the one that drove us here, and I think she can get us a temporary place to hide. It's not a permanent solution, but it would give you time to decide." He finally met Keith's gaze. "What do you think?" 

“I would like that. I don’t want to go back,” Keith admitted, words slow and halting, “but I never thought of...living here. I don’t know how. Or if I can.” He winced, looking at his human nails. 

“Then, I’ll let her know…Is that blood?” Lance leaned over the table and motioned for Keith’s hand. 

Initially, Keith flinched and gave a little hiss, but one guilty glance at Lance had him nodding and offering his hand for examination. 

It wasn’t strawberry juice and it didn’t look like his lunch fish. It was definitely blood clogging the nails but his hand looked fine. Lance scanned over Keith, trying to find the source. There was a shuffling under the table and Keith’s face squished as he rocked from side to side. Lance let go and ducked his head under the table. Keith was rubbing his legs together, red lines and torn skin running down his thighs. 

“Fuck.” Lance’s head slammed into the side of the table as he sat up. “Hey, hey, calm down.” He rubbed his head as he tried to grab Keith’s hands to stop him from scratching. It wasn’t going well. Keith was very slippery and nimble even outside the water. 

Keith had gone back to scratching with a passion and Lance had to get up to physically stop him. “Don’t scratch, you’re hurting yourself.”

Keith gave a little whine. “Told you. Legs are  _ itchy _ .” 

“Okay, right.” When Keith had his swimming adventure at the fountain a few days prior, Lance had been so preoccupied by the crowd that he’d forgotten its purpose in the first place. Since then, Keith had mostly been folded up in his apartment’s little bathtub, so he hadn’t gotten to the itchy point again.

“Water helps, right?” Lance swept Keith into his arms to get him there faster, knocking over the chair in the process. It was weird how small Keith was without his tail, but it was more convenient for transportation, so Lance didn’t question it. He ran Keith to the tub and did his best to set him down without either of them falling.

Once they were both safely to the floor, Lance turned the tap all the way to the right. Water gushed from the spigot onto Keith’s feet. With a twist, he stopped the tub tight.

The moan of relief Keith let out was obscene. He wriggled down as far as he could get, skin turning black wherever the water splashed it. The scales emerged as if they were being revealed from sand, and when the water finally covered his thighs, Keith’s full tail unfolded with a thump against the wall. He was bent in a strange sort of J shape, but he still seemed far more comfortable than he had for hours. His head lolled to the side and he gave Lance a lazy and grateful smile. 

"If it gets that bad again, tell me." Lance leaned against the toilet at Keith's nod. The long curve of his tail was way too big for the tiny apartment bathroom. Lance'd have to tell Pidge to find a place with some kind of chlorine-less pool or access to the ocean or a lake or any body of water bigger than this. 

“Lance?” Keith slapped his tail fin contentedly against the tile. 

“Hm?” Lance focused back from middle space to lift a curious eyebrow at Keith.

“Why do you like the ocean?”

A slow smile lifted the corners of Lance’s mouth as his eyes went back to looking at something far away. “I grew up next to it. I remember watching science shows that would talk about space and nature and stuff. There was this one episode where someone said that we’ve only explored twenty percent of the ocean. Our own ocean that we live right next to every day, we knew almost nothing about. The last part of our world that’s still an untouched adventure. We’ll never have deep space travel in my time, but we could have deep-sea travel. I could be the first person to ever lay eyes on a piece of ocean or find a new species and I wouldn’t have to worry about space-time differently.”

That made Keith smile. “It’s nice when you talk about it.” 

“I guess it’s kinda boring for you since you live there. What’s it like? Is my entire life goal worth it, or did I waste all my student loans?” Lance chuckled, resting his chin on his hand.

“No,” Keith shook his head. “Most ocean is too deep for even us. I can go deeper than…” He paused to consider. “Any of my kind I know. And many things can go deeper. No knowing what swims further than Darklights like me.” 

He got lost in that darkness for a moment, eyes glazing as he thought about it before yanking himself back to the light with a shaky smile. “Some of it is pretty. Very pretty.” He bent his tail back to smack Lance playfully with his fin. “If you go too, I can see it not-alone.” 

"It's really dangerous for me to go more than 60 meters down with my poor human body. I'd need an atmospheric diving suit if I was going to go with you and I can tell you right now I don't own one." Lance flicked at Keith's tail. What a dream to have something as wonderful and adaptable as Keith's body. "I can't just grow a tail like you grow legs." 

“It is better here.” Keith waved his arms, stirring the water around his body and staring at nothing. “Even if some humans carve and slice...other humans are you.”

“Well, in that case, I’m sure the ocean is much more boring without you in it anyway.” Lance watched the water reflect off Keith’s scales as silence took over the bathroom. It grew and the longer it grew the harder it seemed to be able to interrupt it. Right before his breaking point, Lance jumped up and left the bathroom in a rush.

He was followed by an indignant high-pitched shrieking that rattled the doors in their frames. 

“Damn, a little less of the screeching.” Lance walked back in, guitar in hand and rubbing his ear. “I was just getting my guitar.” He sat cross legged and gave it a strum.

“Oh.” Keith didn’t seem particularly contrite. Rather, he perked up, the iridescent, dragonfly-like fins behind his ears rattling in interest. “Oh, pretty. Sailors don’t play anymore. Just invisible music. Not real music.” 

Lance tuned it and fingerpicked a short melody to check it. “Well I promised I’d play for you and since you’re stuck in there for a while, I figured,” Lance said, shrugging. The acoustics in the bathroom gave the guitar a warm reverb as he strummed. It was an old classic his mom liked. He cleared his throat and looked shyly up at Keith before he began to sing, low and soft. 

Both sets of Keith’s eyelids lowered and his lips parted. First it was just in awe, but then the corners of his mouth quirked up and his throat rumbled with a deep and happy trill that vibrated his gills. 

Lance's fingers stumbled over the chord change. The music halted as he tried a few times to find the right fingering, repeating the word each time to the wrong note. Once he found it, he continued with nervous fingers. 

After listening for a few more minutes, Keith let the trilling purr die out in favor of humming in harmonic counterpoint to Lance’s song. It wasn’t a hum so much as it was the sound of vocal singing emanating from Keith’s throat instead of his mouth. He made sounds no human could, singing multiple notes at once or rolling a note like a Spanish “r.” He never once overpowered Lance’s voice; just supported it with his own. 

Lance shifted into the next song with only a small hiccup. This one he knew by heart and was able to look up. Keith's voice, if he could call it that, was ethereal. Lance felt like he was caught in a trance. It made sense why myths of sailors crashing into rocks to follow strange music existed, because Lance thought he might do exactly that if it meant he could keep listening to Keith. 

"Ah. Ouch." Lance shook his hand. Fuck, it’d been a while since he played. All of his calluses had gone soft. His fingertips were deep red and indented with lines from the metal strings. The pain had knocked him out of a daze and he had no idea how long they'd been singing. 

“Oh, hurt?” Keith held his hand out for Lance’s. 

"It's fine. Jus' sore." He gave his hand to Keith. 

The ear-fins rattled once more as Keith opened his mouth, a clear fluid welling on the bed of his tongue. Then he gave Lance’s hand a solid lick. 

Lance cringed at the warm liquid that fell from his fingers in long strings. "You didn't have to slobber on it." Holding it out so that the weird slobber wouldn’t get on his guitar, he stood to rinse it off. Except...the pain was gone. Instead, it was replaced by a numb, tingling sensation. He turned, hand still dripping. "You have magic spit." 

Keith chirped at him in annoyance. “Not  _ magic. You  _ don’t live with sea nettles.”

“Right, of course. That’s so cool. I wish I had magic spit." Lance laughed as Keith rattled at him. It was cute the way he took offense to the strangest things. 

The stuff wasn't as easy to wash off as he thought it would be. It was goopy and clung to his skin in a thin sheen. That made sense if it was supposed to work in the ocean, but it still took a good two or three scrubbings until his fingers were free from the slick. Or, as free as they’d ever be. It would probably wear off with time.

Lance raised his hand to show Keith and gave him a smile. "All better. I need to call Pidge. Wait here for a bit?" 

“You keep leaving,” Keith murmured, somewhere between softly hurt and somewhat accusatory. Then he seemed to realize that he’d said it out loud and followed with a bright “Okay!” before sliding under the waterline, tail curling over him in a rainbow. 

“Sorry, I swear I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.” 

Keith didn’t answer, except for a few rude bubbles, so Lance shut the door to the bathroom. 

He leaned against it, listening to the splashes on the other side. 

That fish was going to be the death of him. 

With a sigh, he pushed off the door and resigned himself to actually trying to get Keith home. 

He called Pidge and wandered over to his bed, flopping down as the phone rang. He flipped onto his stomach and propped his chin on a pillow as he waited.  _ Hang on.  _ Lance sniffed the pillow, then sniffed the sheets, and finally sniffed himself. Great, him and his whole bed smelled like fish. Lance sighed as Pidge answered. 

It was not a short conversation. Pidge had a hard time believing Keith had legs (as if that was the most unbelievable part of the entire situation) and spent half the phone call trying to diagnose Lance with every illness under the sun. Pidge had also been extremely busy that day, tracking down a suitable safe house for them (and by that she meant an Air BnB that she’d hacked to rent out indefinitely). It was important that they go ASAP - immediately, if possible. 

According to the info she pulled from GalraBio that afternoon, no one suspected Lance yet, but that could change any minute. The longer they loitered in Lance’s apartment, the higher the likelihood of getting caught. By the time he hung up, they had a clear plan. He just needed to pack. 

He pulled his suitcase out of the closet and began throwing in the essentials. Food, clothes, Keith’s dress, and Lance’s personal items were haphazardly stuffed into bags. Sentimental shit, like his framed acceptance letter to GalraBio and pictures of his family, were all left behind. “Please don’t break my stuff,” he begged to the unknown.

Finally, he stripped his bed of the sheet and tied it around himself like a sash. A few good tugs and he was satisfied. All that was left were his cosmetics and Keith. Hopefully, Keith would be excited since the new place had a pool, but the mood he’d left the fishman in wasn’t promising.

Lance peeked into the bathroom to find Keith slowly and rhythmically slapping his tail fin against the tiles, almost like someone playing catch with themselves against a wall. He was clearly sulky. Or bored. Or both. 

Lance took a deep breath, stepping in. “Is there anything you want me to pack for you? I already packed your tropical fin.” Lance waited for some kind of smile and got nothing. 

“No. Thank you,” Keith said. 

“Well, uh. Pidge is on her way and she’ll be here any minute.”

Keith nodded absentmindedly. “That is information.”

“Yes, right, yes it is,” Lance said, picking up his tote that housed all his cosmetics and coughed. “This is the last thing. So, you ready to see your new temporary home? It has a pool for you and everything, much better than this tub.”

Keith looked over at him, ear fins catching and reflecting the light. “I’m...sorry, Lance.” His voice was serious, quiet. More somber than Lance had ever heard, even when he was still trapped. 

He let the tote fall to his side and squatted down next to the tub. “What are you sorry for?”

“This.” Keith gestured around. “Me,” he said. “You...are running. Leaving. In danger. You should have left me.”

“No one should ever apologize for their own existence. Especially not you. You’re the most amazing thing,  _ person _ , I’ve ever seen and I’m going to save you. No one forced me to. I  _ want _ to save you.” Lance held out his hand as a peace offering. “Any sacrifice I make for you is worth it a million times over.” 

Keith’s pupils narrowed and expanded as he considered. “Because I’m for studying.” It wasn’t really a question. 

Lance bit his lip and had the grace to look ashamed. Keith was right. “I can’t help but be curious and want to learn more about you and your species. But I’m not Lotor. I don’t want to cut you up or harm you. I want to save you. Please let me?”

Keith looked down despondently and his tail fell to the side. “You are pod leader now. That means my body is yours for using. For whatever the pod needs.”

“I’m not going to use you. At least, I’m going to do my best to not let my wonder get away from me. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to. Okay?” Lance hooked his finger under Keith’s chin and looked into his eyes. “After I get you to the safe house, you’re free. You can stay or go, but it’ll be your choice.” 

Lance hadn't planned that at all. The thought of Keith choosing to leave sent a pang through his heart. But, it was the right thing to do, even after everything he and Pidge had gone through to save him. Even if he never saw Keith again. It was the right thing.

Keith nodded mutely, but he didn’t seem any happier. He just held up his arms to be lifted, eyes unfocused. 

“We’ll talk more about it when we’re safe, okay? But for now, we need to go.” Lance sat at the edge of the tub. “Think you can crawl on my back and sit in the sling?”

It took some maneuvering, but eventually, Lance had a dripping merman strapped to his back. Keith’s arms hugged his neck loosely, his chin resting on Lance’s shoulder. This close, Lance could hear whenever Keith drew a breath. Even above water, it made a coffee-brewing, gurgling sound. 

Lance relied on Keith to keep himself attached while he juggled the bags of fish and his suitcases down three flights of stairs. Pidge was already parked outside with a van, the back doors open. 

"Pidge!"

“Hey, we just need to - Oh holy shit.” Pidge’s eyes went comically round as soon as she caught sight of Keith, slung over Lance’s back like a baby monkey - a decidedly alien, aquatic, bioluminescent baby monkey. Keith shrank down a little on instinct, but Pidge held up a hand and gentled her voice. “It’s okay. Not gonna hurt you. I’m Pidge - I’m Lance’s friend. And you’re Keith, right?”

Keith blinked both sets of eyelids with a wet, squelching sound, and nodded. 

“Okay. Awesome.” She turned to Lance. “Wow. You uh...weren’t exaggerating.”

“Yeah. Keith is…” Lance was going to say something like  _ the biggest scientific discovery of their time _ , but that was for plants and animals. “Really nice. He loves mackerel.”

Pidge snorted at this assessment. “Duly noted.”

She took his suitcases and the bags of fish from him and stowed them before they both carefully lowered Keith into the kiddie pool. Pidge had filled it with saltwater and there was even one of the company's dolphin toys. Not for the first time, Lance had to stop and marvel at the miracle that was Pidge’s resourcefulness - a scary, highly illegal, extremely convenient miracle, but still. He was grateful. 

"I'll sit back here with him and make sure he gets enough water." Lance crawled into the back and made himself comfortable as Pidge slammed the doors shut. 

Keith curled up into himself, sinking as far down below the minimal waterline as he could. It was obvious the moment he switched from lungs to gills by the sudden rush of bubbles. A few drags of saltwater later and he at least seemed to relax a little. 

They rode in silence; the only sounds were Pidge’s music and Keith’s pool water sloshing. Lance let his finger dangle in the water, partially to stop the pool from sliding during turns and partially to feel the brush of fins on his fingertips now and then. 

He still couldn’t believe this was happening. That he was sitting in the back of a getaway van with an actual, real-and-alive  _ merman _ . A merman with thoughts and feelings that he could discov- 

Lance stopped himself.

“Hey, Keith?”

_ What,  _ Keith signed.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?”

Keith pushed himself up and flattened his gills, taking a few moments to get his lungs working again. “Mad?”

“Yeah.” Lance sighed, raking a hand through his hair to stall. “I’m one of them. I’m part of GalraBio who hurt you.”

“ _ You  _ didn’t hurt me,” Keith insisted. “You did not know. And you are leaving safety, all for me. How could I be mad?”

Lance bit his lip. He really didn’t want to confess this, but not telling Keith felt like a lie, and he had said they’d talk when they were safe. Stuck in the back of a van was as good a time as any. “I was selfish for a long time after meeting you in that tank. I wanted to study you in the same way, like an animal. There’s a part of me that still wants to. To find out exactly what you are.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “So, you should. You  _ should _ be mad at me.”

Keith looked...wary, all of a sudden. He eyed Lance and pulled his fin a little closer to his torso. “I said - you are pod leader. But...the  _ same  _ way?”

“No!” Lance said too loud, and Pidge turned in concern. He waved her away and she went back to driving. “No. I’d never starve any animal. I study them because I love them. I would only ever hurt something if it was for their own good, like bad tasting medicine or a life saving surgery not-” His eyes flicked to the chunk gouged from Keith’s tail. “Not what they did to you,” he said, with all his conviction.

Keith gurgled from his throat and slipped further into the water, letting his tail relax. “I am...not mad,” he offered at last. “Anything you want to do to me is better than before.” 

"No, Keith. No one should do anything to you, not even me. And," Lance sighed, "I'm sorry, for what it's worth, that I ever thought you were just an animal when you’re so much more." 

Keith seemed to turn that over for a bit before he spoke again. “If not a prisoner,” he said slowly. “What...am I? A pet?”

"What about a friend?" Lance signed it as he said it. 

Keith blinked at him, made especially surreal by the fact that his two sets of eyelids moved independently of each other. Then he smiled, soft and almost shy, the fins behind his ears vibrating with pleasure. “Okay Lance,” he agreed. “Friends.”

Lance hooked his fingers with Keith's as one half of the 'friend' sign. "Friends." 

~💧~

The Air BnB that Pidge had indefinitely rented was nothing Lance would ever have been able to afford in his normal, non-criminal life. It was nestled into a rocky cliff that ended directly at the ocean. From the back balcony, the waves came splashing against the rocks in an unending rhythm, and the air smelled of salt with the peculiar, added sharpness of drying kelp. A family of sea otters were floating by on their backs when Pidge was giving them a quick tour, which made the whole thing feel a lot more vacation-y than any heist had a right to be. 

The best and most important part was the enormous indoor pool of filtered saltwater. It was lit from the sides, above, and a few feet below with LEDs of alternating colors and was more than large enough for Keith to swim laps without feeling cramped. 

“Praise welcome at this point,” Pidge said smugly as Lance knelt to let Keith slide into the water. 

“I don’t think it’d be enough. Pidge, this place is, well it’s, it’s basically a mansion. You’re a goddamn genius.”

“I am.” Kneeling, Pidge smiled at Keith as he resurfaced, blinking at his new surroundings in awe. “What do you think?”

“Bigger,” was his astute observation. “ _ Better _ .” Without further preamble, he sank below the water and began swimming circles to stretch his fins. 

Pidge watched, shaking her head. “That’s a merman,” she informed Lance. 

“A stolen merman. From the biggest Biotech company in the world.” Lance stood and whispered so Keith couldn’t hear, “What are we going to do? What if they find us,  _ him _ ?”

“They won’t. I’ll make sure of it. Or at least, I’ll do my absolute best.” Scrubbing a hand through her wild mess of hair, Pidge sighed. “I can’t tell you how much I want to publish something on him though. Even on the Darkweb or - or  _ something _ .”

“I know, trust me I know.” Lance elbowed her as Keith jumped from the surface into a shallow dive. “Let’s go get some lunch.”

The food was still in bags from their quick escape and he started putting them away as Pidge hopped up onto a stool to watch him. Lance tossed her a chip bag and stuck the rest in a pantry the size of his old room. “I told him he was free to leave whenever he wanted,” he said as casually as possible. 

“I figured you might.” Pidge popped three chips in her mouth at once and spoke around them. “You think he will?”

Lance shrugged. “He might. It’s hard to tell how he’s feeling and his English isn’t that great.” He paused as he picked up a can of corn. “Is it bad? To want to study him?”

“Pretty sure it’s natural. Humans are curious, and you’ve been obsessed with the ocean forever.” She shrugged. “Have you asked him?”

“Asked him what?” Lance clutched the corn to his chest and pitched his voice, ‘Hey, Keith, I know you’ve been starved and cut open but I really need to know how your species reproduce so if you could just show me that’d be great. Pretty pretty please.’ Like that’d go over well.” He slammed the corn into the shelf and threw the bag down.

Pidge snorted, then went unusually quiet. “Lance,” she said - a clear warning. “This should go without saying, but don’t you dare start catching feelings for the mermaid you stole. That’s a one-way street to disaster, and I  _ know  _ you.” 

“ _ Man. _ I’m uh, pretty sure. And what does that mean that you ‘know me.’” Lance made air quotes and rolled his eyes. “I’m  _ trying _ to have a conversation about the moral grayness of studying a new species that’s sentient and you’re over here accusing me of bestiality.” 

“Because,” she countered, holding up a finger. “One, your first thought was about his junk. You’ve totally been thinking about Keith the Merman’s junk.” Another finger. “Two. You’ve always had a thing for Ariel. And three - I saw the dopey way you smiled at him, and you sure wouldn’t be giving those moony, gooey eyes if we were smuggling Shamu.”

Lance threw another bag of chips at her. “You don’t know that. Shamu is very handsome.” 

“You think about his junk too?”

“No! Oh my God,  _ Pidge _ . I’m starting to think  _ you’re _ thinking about his junk.” Lance threw his hands in the air and gave up on getting Pidge to see him as the moral pillar he was. “It would only be for  _ science.” _

Her expression softened, even if she was still frowning at him. “You’re a heart-on-your-sleeve guy, Lance. I can’t keep you both here forever. You’ll have to figure something out, and I’m just afraid that whatever the outcome is, you’re gonna wind up hurt.”

“I’m not going to be hurt because Keith is off-limits. We’re saving him to  _ free  _ him. I’m perfectly capable of getting myself a date without kidnapping.” He sighed and moved to sit next to Pidge. “You’re right though, this can’t be forever, but I have no idea what to do with him. He said his own kind would kill him if he went back.” 

“What?” Her whole face wrinkled with disbelief. “Why? What the hell.”

Lance stole a chip and munched, swallowing before he answered. “I think, well it’s not scientific, but, I think that he’s dangerous to them now that he’s been in contact with humans. That, and he’s a Darklight.”

“A who-what-now?”

“Oh, that’s what Keith calls himself. I mean it makes sense, why would they call themselves mermaids?” Now that he thought about it, he kinda wished that he knew what the other clans were called. “There’s tropical ones too in warm water but Keith said he lives in the cold and that he could go deeper than most of his kind. Pidge, he said there were things  _ below _ even Darklights.”

Pidge glanced down at the goosebumps on her arms. “Well, that’s fucking terrifying.” 

“I hope you mean exciting. Just think, if mermaids are real, what else is out there? I could discover a real life Kraken.” Lance’s smile fell. “Or I could have. Guess it’s time to give up on that dream.”

“Hey.” Pidge reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Even if it sucks, you’re never gonna regret doing what you did. You would have regretted doing nothing.”

Lance leaned against her. “I know. It still sucks. It’s just- I have no idea what to do with my life now  _ and _ I have to take care of Keith until we can get him somewhere safe. I couldn’t have  _ not _ done it, but…” He hunched over to lay his head on her shoulder. “It’s hard, is all.”

“Of course it is.” She patted his hair. “But we’re gonna figure it out, okay? Just focus on him right now while I take care of stuff on my end. Speaking of which, let me show you how the security system works…”

~💧~

It took about two hours for Pidge to walk him through all of the specifics. By the time she left to grab them some food and supplies, his head was buzzing. 

When Lance went to check on Keith, he was all smiles. A bigger pool did wonders for his fins, which were unfurled completely for the first time since they’d met. Even in the bigger tank at GalraBio, Keith hadn’t really bothered to stretch out entirely, given that he’d just be going right back in the tube. 

He laid his face in the crook of his folded arms, perched on the rim of the pool. “Hello!” he chirped in greeting, lashing his tail through the water in emphasis. “This is a  _ much  _ better cage.” 

“Pool,” Lance corrected, though maybe it was just semantics. “You look happier, though.” He sat down, dipping his feet in the water and splashing Keith. “You’re glowing.”

“I am?” Keith looked down in confusion. “I wasn’t trying to. The water is not dark.” 

“Not physically glowing. Just…bright. You’ve really turned into a tropical fish.”

That brought out a little giggle. “I never can stay in water this warm. I feel like a tropical fish.” He returned the little splash Lance had given him by slapping his tail against the water to send a few droplets his way. “Can you swim?” 

“Not as well as you, but pretty good for someone without a tail. I was on the swim team. I thought that I had to take swimming to become a marine biologist and that is surprisingly not true.” Lance kicked the water to make little ripples across the surface. 

“Swim with me.” Keith beat his tail like a dolphin, raising himself vertically a few inches in excitement. 

“Nah, this is for you. I need to get unpacked.” Lance sent Keith an apologetic smile and flicked the water. “I just wanted to check on you. I’ll see you in a few hours-”

The very last syllable was half-garbled as Keith grabbed his ankles, yanking Lance off the edge and into the water. He towed him down a foot or so before letting him go with a laugh that carried underwater just as well as above. 

Lance shot up, sputtering and coughing. He flicked his head back to throw his bangs out of his face. “You little sneak!” 

It wasn’t easy to swim in street clothes and he could already feel them dragging him down. He made quick work of his pants and shirt, wadding them into a ball and throwing them to the deck. “Get back here!”

Keith’s laughter echoed back on itself like sonar. He swam close enough to brush his tail against Lance, but darted away before Lance could grab hold of anything. Whenever he had the chance, he’d send a wall of water to wash over Lance and dunk him down. “I thought you could swim,” he taunted through his shark-toothed grin. 

“I told you I wasn’t as good as you.” Lance spat and jumped to get water out of his ear. “Can’t we play a different game?”

Indulgently, Keith swam close again and held both of his hands out. “Hold these. And put your...your leg-stoppers on me.” 

Lance held his hands with a mumbled, “They’re called feet,” as he put them on Keith. 

“Mmf,” Keith said dismissively, his concentration on wiggling around until he got said leg-stoppers where he wanted them. Then he gripped Lance by the wrists and smirked up at him. “Hold me tight,” he commanded. 

“What are you-” Lance let out an excited squeal as Keith shot off.

A few powerful kicks got them going, and then a fast, steady beat of Keith’s tail allowed enough momentum for him to pull Lance almost to standing. He moved circles around the pool on his back, churning up salty, frothy waves in the water as he took Lance for a ride that was more or less like skiing. 

“Holy shit, this is amazing!” Lance whooped and let go of one of Keith’s hands to lift into the air. It would be even better in the ocean where there was more room. As it was, they were making dizzying circles around the pool. It felt so much smaller at this speed and Lance realized just how awful Keith’s old cage was and how much worse his tub must've been. 

Keith kept them going until his tail started to get tired and the floor all around the pool was sitting under at least half an inch of salt water. He slowed down, lowering Lance back into the water so he could take over keeping himself afloat. “I have seen humans do that before and it always looked fun,” he admitted with a little grin. “The best thing about the ocean is space to swim fast.” 

Lance was giddy, all smiles and shaky adrenaline. “We should do it again out there then. Now it’s my turn.” He grabbed Keith’s wrist and dragged him to a more shallow section of the pool where he could stand comfortably. Dunking his head to get his hair out of his face, he held out his arms. 

Keith eyed them curiously before floating between them, looping his arms over Lance’s neck. That brought their faces very close, and he smiled, nose to nose. “Like this?” 

Someone should teach Keith about personal space. He should, he was probably the one that had to. Lance did his best to keep his voice the same, "Yep, but don't hold onto me." He unwound Keith's arms from his neck. 

With a sly grin, he grabbed Keith around the waist and spun them both in a circle for momentum, before flinging Keith towards the deep end. Keith was much heavier with his tail, but Lance was able to get a little air with that throw. 

Keith was belly-laughing when he resurfaced, a few quick wiggles of his tail sending him back to Lance in seconds. “Do it again!” he begged, sounding an awful lot like Lance’s nephew. 

“Of course.” 

Lance threw him until his arms felt like lead. Keith still had plenty of energy and Lance was running out. When Keith swam back to him with another ‘ _ Again _ ,’ Lance shook his head and gathered Keith close. “Too tired, you carry me now.”

Expression softening, Keith pulled Lance to his chest and raised his tail to float on his back. The skin of his belly was surprisingly warm compared to the rubbery softness of his tail. 

"Is it okay? The pool and the house?" Lance asked, letting himself be pulled along.

“Better,” Keith affirmed, then shook his head. “ _ Better  _ better. I thought I would be dead, and now I am swimming with you.”

It was true, any longer at GalraBio and he would've been. It'd only been a week or so but Keith was already filling in between his bones. Lance ran a hand down Keith's arm. His muscles still felt weak, but hopefully they'd grow now that he had room to swim. "I'll take care of you as long as you're with me." 

Keith turned his head to the side, nose brushing against Lance’s wet hair. “...I want to take care of you, too. But I don’t know how.”

"That makes two of us." Lance checked Keith's other arm for muscle deterioration. "How does your body feel?”

“Hot,” Keith answered in a near-whisper. “Very hot right now.”

"Hm…I'll talk to Pidge about the temperature. You might be uncomfortable for a while as we experiment." 

“No. Fine before - the water is fine. Hot whenever  _ you  _ get close.”

"Oh," Lance said, realization blooming on his cheeks. Pidge's warning berated him in the back of his head. This was no time for silly fantasies. Lance needed to stop projecting onto Keith's broken English. It was probably because his body temperature was too high for Keith. "Oh right. Well, please try and persevere. Would you let me do a full exam on you later? I want to make sure we undo as much harm as possible." 

He could feel Keith sigh beneath him by the way they dipped into the water. “...Yes.”

"It might take some work, but we'll get you back into peak physical condition." Being brave, Lance brushed Keith's bangs from his eyes. "Don't worry, I'm here to help, we'll do this together.”

“Yes,” Keith agreed again. Before Lance pulled his hand away, Keith’s tongue snuck out to give his wrist a small lick. 

Lance tucked his hand into his chest. "Wanna try a race again? Maybe with you tired I might have a chance." 

That suggestion brought out Keith’s shark-grin. “No you won’t.”

"We'll see after I win." Lance shoved him and took off as fast as he could. 

One pitiful race later and Lance had agreed to go back to throwing Keith instead. He’d managed it three times before a throat clearing by the doorway caught his attention. 

“There won’t be any water left in the pool if you two keep dicking around like that,” Pidge commented dryly from the doorframe. She was leaning against it with her arms crossed, probably trying for stern, but unable to manage it for the grinning. 

“You’re back,” Lance said. Then blinked. “What time is it? Didn’t you just leave?”

“If by ‘just’ you mean ‘over an hour ago.’”

“Again,” Keith insisted, taking Lance’s hands and placing them on his own waist. 

Lance pouted at Pidge. “One more?”

“Oh my god.” Pidge walked over to watch, and sure enough, the water in the dip around the pool ledge was up to her ankles. “Alright,  _ children _ . One more.” 

“Thanks  _ mom. _ ” He turned to Keith. “Ready?” Lance didn’t wait for an answer. He spun them around more than he needed and put all his strength into the last throw. Keith actually made it out of the water, tail and all, before splashing back in. 

He popped up next to Lance, hair in his eyes and smile enormous. “You are a  _ strong _ human,” he complimented. 

“Wow,” was all Pidge said. 

Lance brushed Keith’s bangs out of his eyes with a tangled and messy swipe of his hand. “I gotta go help Pidge.”

There was no hiding his disappointment, but Keith nodded all the same. He swiveled around and called back, “Thank you, Pidge who is Lance’s friend.”

“Ha,” Pidge grinned, giving him the same two-fingered salute that Lance sometimes did. “No problem. Let history show that I was always on the right side of discovery. My altruism knows no bounds.”

That was evidently the end of Keith’s tolerance for whatever words were coming out of Pidge’s mouth. “Goodbye,” he said to Lance, and sank under the waterline. 

“I think you talked him into leaving.” Lance lifted himself out of the water and grabbed his wet clothes. “Please tell me you were a good adult while I was being a bad one.” He stood up, wet underwear hiding nothing. 

“Oh, Christ, put that away,” Pidge griped, throwing him a towel from the complimentary bin. “I don’t want to think about you and the words ‘adult’ and ‘bad’ while your gross dingaling is all up in my face.” 

“My  _ dingaling _ is not gross. I’ve had many compliments on it and not one person said it was gross.” Lance wrapped the towel around his waist anyway.

“ _ Gag.”  _ Pidge motioned to the door they’d come from - one that led into a sort of anteroom that split between sauna, shower, and the hallway to the living room. “Get dried off and meet me in the dining room. I have snacks and some more stuff to show you.” 

Lance nodded. “Can’t wait.” Before walking out of the room, he couldn’t help himself and looked back to wave at Keith. 

Keith was already looking at him, violet eyes, oil-slick hair, and glittery fins poking from the top of the waterline. As soon as he noticed Lance, Keith ducked under immediately...but his tail rose up to wave back before it submerged as well. 

~💧~

Lance peeked his head into the pool room. The lights were out and the LED stars on the ceiling glowed. Their reflections danced on the pool’s surface as the water slapped against the tile. Reciprocal swirling patterns glowed on the surface like a nebula of stars. He knocked, breaking the quiet of the room. “Keith?”

Not hair nor fin of Keith popped out of the water. He hefted the bag on his shoulder and stepped through. “Hey, Keith. I got a surprise for you.” The water was dark and Lance couldn’t see any movement down below. 

He called a few more times, voice rising in concern. Just as Lance was about to jump in and search for himself, Keith’s head popped up. His double eyelids blinked sluggishly and out of sync. It took a few seconds for him to push the water from his gills in a flurry of bubbles before he could pull air through his lungs to speak. “What is a surprise,” he asked, more a sleepy statement than a question. 

“I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Lance shifted and looked back at the door. “Go back to sleep. I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“No,” Keith whined into the waterline, blowing a few bubbles as he swam towards the rim and Lance. “You were away very long, I was sleeping to make time go.” 

"Sorry about that." Lance set the bag down and pulled out a pillow and blanket, laying on the cold deck, now dry with time. It was hard and uncomfortable, but that was a price he was willing to pay. Rolling on his side, head propped up on his elbow, he offered, “I thought I'd sleep in here with you tonight." 

Keith brightened considerably. “Why? Will you sleep on this rock?” 

"The first night in a strange house can be scary, so I thought we could keep each other company." Lance looked up at the LED stars. "I don't sleep well in big houses like this."

That earned him a soft laugh. “I don’t sleep well in big oceans. I was sleeping in the grate.” 

"You shouldn't sleep in the grate, that's dirty. Should I get you a bed? I figured you slept on the pool floor. You were always at the bottom of the tube when I visited you." 

The mention of the tube had Keith’s expression faltering. “...I had nowhere else to go. Or a reason to move.” 

"Hey." Lance leaned over and tapped Keith's nose. "Let's not think about that. You're free now. Let's think about the things you want to do." 

“Ice cream,” Keith said. “ _ Die Hard _ .”

Not what he was expecting at all. Lance’d thought he’d want some pool toys or a cave for hiding in. Ice cream and movies were not even on his radar. "Okaaaay. I'll bite, how do you even know about  _ Die Hard _ ?"

“Sometimes the boats are low. I can climb and watch through the window.” Keith swished his tail, creating little whirlpools in the water that sent his hair swirling. “A storm came. I didn’t see the ending.” 

"In that case, we'll have to watch it, won't we? We could even watch it  _ while _ eating ice cream. The possibilities are endless." 

“What do you want to do?”

Keith was perched on the edge of the pool now, chin nestled in his crossed arms - apparently his new default position of choice. The lights on the water were turning his skin and fins strange colors, and whenever he blinked his eyelids, they were an eerie sort of grey from the reflection. He looked at Lance, attentive and curious, reaching up to poke him when Lance took too long to answer. 

“Oh um, me? I mean, I live here so there isn't much I want to do, but if we're talking about the ocean - well, I'd want to swim free. Not with pounds and pounds of gear. But, like, the way you do. I'd want to spend hours following an octopus, just to see where it went, or exploring sunken ships looking for ghosts.”

That made Keith grin with his sharp teeth. “Those are good ideas. But I was asking - what do you want to do? Up here? Together?” 

"With you?" Lance studied Keith's face, so far from human yet so close at the same time. "Everything I guess. Pillow fights, fast food, gaming. I'm not sure what's going to happen to us and I don't know how much time we have, but I want to enjoy it until you leave." 

“Leave…” The grin fell. Keith sank down a little in the water. The word echoed in the cavern. “Leave.” 

"Not that I want you to, it's just your home." Lance let his hand bump into Keith's. "Tell me about it? Why don't you want to go back to the ocean? I don't understand." 

Keith hummed three notes at once, looking thoughtful. “Question? Explain the word ‘home.’” 

What was a home? Lance thought about Cuba where he grew up, and his apartment with its cheap furniture, and his mom's house where he spent most of his teenage years. While they were all ‘home’ in name, there was only one that was truly  _ home _ . "Home is where your family is. It's where you keep all your stuff. Home is where you want to go when you're tired and where you feel safe." 

“I thought so.” Keith idly flipped his tail, sending a scattering of droplets up to catch the light. “Then no home. I have no home. My pod left and made sure I could not follow. I have not been near another of my kind since I was a pup. They swim around me for leagues. I keep me alive, find a hole to be tired, and never feel safe.” 

Lance wanted to hug Keith. Wrap him up and make him feel safe.  _ Why not? _ he thought to himself. Who was watching to make sure he followed human social constraints? He held out his arms. "Come here?" 

Keith looked up quizzically. “Legs?” 

"Yeah, legs." 

Hoisting himself up, Keith perched on the side of the pool and hauled his massive tail up to the concrete. In a few seconds, the scales began to recede into pale skin and the tail split into his legs. Within a minute, he was crawling, naked and still dripping seawater, into Lance’s arms. 

Okay, so Lance forgot about the whole clothes thing. He did his best to be polite and not look. All he wanted to do was give Keith some comfort; his weird thoughts about fishmen could wait. He wrapped his arms around Keith, tucking him under his chin. "I'll do my best to keep you safe. You don't have to sleep in holes here.”

Keith stuck his leg out and looked down at his wiggling toes. “No good holes in the pool. Nicer to be up here with you.” 

"You don't have to sleep in a hole in the pool either." Lance ran his fingers through Keith’s wet hair, careful not to pull on the tangles. "But if you want, you can sleep on the bed and I can take the couch." 

“Why?” Keith sat up and looked down at Lance. The crease in his brow and the set of his lips, whether he intended it or not, was definitely a pout. 

Maybe he'd overstepped his bounds."I thought the bed might be more comfortable, but if you'd rather stay in the pool, that's fine. I might be able to make something for you to hide in. It'll just take me a while." 

“No, why not both in bed?” Keith’s wavy black hair was dripping patterns on Lance’s nightshirt as he looked down, considering him. “Legs are cold, you are warm. Sharing, right?” 

"Sharing a bed is a very private thing." Lance remembered Keith's shining eyes in the dark and how his jacket barely covered Keith's perky ass. Nope. Lance only had so much self control; he was already bending so many rules. Already getting too close to crossing some kind of line he wasn't sure Keith understood. "Beds are for sharing with the person you love." 

“So I am the person you love,” Keith declared firmly. “We shared a bed. We can do it again. Unless.” He pulled back, as if realizing that this was not a thing they were communicating efficiently. That perhaps Lance was trying to tell him something else in his gentle Lance way. “This is…” He peered past Lance, scrunching his nose as he sought to find the correct words. “Enough of - too much - of me. I should go now? Back in the pool?”

And that was too much for Lance. He could see years of hurt and betrayal cross over Keith’s face in a matter of seconds. Lance reached up and pulled Keith to him, holding him firmly against his chest. He could feel Keith’s heart, out of sync with his own, beat against him. “No, not too much.” How did he explain this without misleading Keith or hurting his feelings? “I want you to understand what it means. To me.” 

Sure, a bed could be shared among family or friends or any other innocent combination of people. But Lance was already falling and his thoughts were further from innocent than he was ready to admit. The nuance of language was going to be too difficult to navigate. He had to be direct and blunt.

Lance held Keith back so he could look into his eyes. “You’re very handsome. I find you attractive and funny. But, you also just came from a very stressful situation and I’m the one that got you out. Your feelings for me, about me, whatever they are, might not be what you really feel. Once you meet other people or if you ever found your pod, well, you might realize I’m not everything you thought I was.”

Lance took a deep breath and traced a finger down Keith’s jaw. “You’ll realize I’m just a boring, geeky human who studies fish all the time and who can’t follow you into the ocean. I don’t want to take advantage of you because you’re confusing thankfulness with affection. I want to earn your affection over time, if...if I can.” Even as he said it, he could hear Pidge yelling at him. He pushed her aside. They’d been talking for months and she was wrong, there was no way this could be a bad thing.

Even if the rest of it was something Keith was still working through, translating in his mind, the last part clearly made sense to him. His smile was intimate and a little shy and he leaned his cheek into Lance’s hand. “I have many words to say,” Keith said plainly, “but in all of the words  _ you  _ said, you didn’t say ‘no.’” His purple eyes and the veins under his skin glowed with muted, happy violet light. 

Searching back through everything he said, Lance realized Keith was right. “I guess I didn’t. Are you sure you’re comfortable sleeping with me when I - I’m- knowing how I feel?”

Keith looked down and to the side, studying the eerie, surreal patterns the LEDs were casting on the water’s surface. “Sleeping, for my kind, needs trust. Some sleep and others watch. Your life is theirs. I sleep in holes so there is no way to kill me from behind. My life is only mine. If there are no holes, I do not sleep. To sleep next to you is...more trust than I have given. Ever.” His eyes were still glowing, but guarded, when he looked back at Lance. “I think...you would not hurt me. I am trusting that. In sleep, beside you.” 

“The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you.” Lance sat up, pulling one knee in to rest his head on. “Quite the opposite really. But I can wait ‘til you understand. Then if you want to reject me and find someone else’s bed, you can. Until then, you’re free to sleep with me. That is, if you want.”

Keith jerked his head to the side, indicating the pool with a teasing smile. “You are welcome to come in my hole instead.”

Lance blushed up to his hairline. Nope, mind out of the gutter. Keith needed to get better at English, yesterday. “I’d rather not drown, thanks.” Lance huffed a laugh as he tried to bring his thoughts under control. He held out his arms, knowing how much Keith hated walking. “Wanna go to bed?”

Nodding, Keith had absolutely zero qualms about waiting to be picked up, holding his arms out in turn. “Bed might be the best thing humans have done. Strawberries maybe.”

Strawberries and beds started mixing in Lance’s head and he pushed all those feelings down. Keith was going to be the end of him. 

He stood and was about to sweep Keith into his arms when he remembered that Keith was still very much naked. He slammed his eyes shut. “If you’re going to sleep in the bed you have to wear clothes.”

Keith gave him a disgruntled look and an irritated rattle of his ear fins. “ _ Why?” _ He whined. “No one  _ else  _ comes to bed!”

_ “Because.” _ Lance steeled himself and opened his eyes to grab the blanket. He wrapped it around Keith with a firm tug. He didn’t give further explanation, not sure what to even say. He picked Keith up bridal style, since he was tucked in like a burrito, and carried him to the room.

After a brief, half-hearted struggle, Keith eventually gave up and seemed resigned to his fate as disgruntled Mexican food. “ _ No pants,”  _ he insisted. “Pants are  _ horrible _ !” 

“Underwear?” Lance tried bargaining but without much hope.

The mermaid equivalent of a whine, Lance learned, was a screechy sort of  _ RREEEEEEEE  _ that definitely didn’t need to be repeated. 

“Okay, okay. Shhh. No underwear, just never do that again.” Lance dropped Keith on the fluffy bed so that he bounced. Digging through his suitcase, he found an oversized shirt that he hoped covered all the important bits, even if those bits were just smooth scales. He held it up for Keith’s inspection. “What about just this?”

Happy at having won, Keith held his hand out for the shirt. “Yes. Does it smell like you smell?” 

Lance actually smelled his shirt. “It smells clean.” He tossed it to Keith. “What do I smell like anyway?”

It took Keith a moment to wiggle himself free from his blanket prison enough to struggle into the shirt. When his head popped through the hole, he bunched up the fabric and brought it to his face, inhaling deeply and smiling. “Yes. Lance-smell. Something I have never smelled and also the sea. Both places.” 

Okay, Lance wasn’t expecting that to affect him and yet here he was, face warm because  _ Keith _ said he smelled like the sea. Ugh, he was hopeless. “And you like the way I smell?”

“Yes,” Keith said easily. “Sometimes I could smell you through the grate-trap after you were gone and it helped. Especially when they came to carve.” 

Lance took a step closer and gestured to the blanket still folded in Keith’s lap. “May I see it? What they did to you?”

Keith shrank back a little. “...You said I was handsome. Maybe not if you look.” 

“You don’t have to show me.” Lance had seen it, of course, the chunk out of Keith’s tail. He also knew that because it was a tail it wouldn’t be the same as seeing it on something as human-looking as Keith’s legs. “But what they did to you, none of that could ever tarnish your beauty. That’s something they can’t carve out of you.”

That was met with a few seconds of stunned silence before Keith’s pale cheeks dissolved into a red that was impossible to miss, mostly because part of it was his own bioluminescence. “I...think I understand,” he mumbled, before pulling the blanket to the side. 

His tail was a great deal larger than his human body, so the damage wasn’t nearly as extensive. There was still a noticeable divot at his hip, and the skin there was marred by pink scar tissue. When he stood, the indent was even more pronounced. 

Anger flared hot in Lance’s chest followed by sympathy pain. Torture. That’s what they were doing in that facility. If Lance had any doubts about rescuing Keith they were burned away in an instant. 

He didn’t even have time to worry about Keith’s nakedness, not that Keith had any visible  _ anything _ . “I’m sorry I didn’t get you out sooner.” Lance lifted a hand and paused over Keith’s hip, silently asking for permission. 

Keith covered Lance’s hand with his own and guided him to press into the missing chunk of flesh. “You saved me. That is so much.”

Tracing his fingers over it, he could feel where the skin had healed in jagged lines from lack of care. He laid his palm over it and tilted Keith’s face up to meet him. “You’re so handsome, sometimes I can’t believe you’re real.”

Lips parting, Keith’s glowing eyes double-blinked dazedly up at Lance. “You - you are handsome, also. Beautiful.” He reached up and toyed with a lock of Lance’s hair in fascination. “Like in the movie.”

Right. Lance probably looked like a knock off of some actor Keith had watched on a boat. Keith was conflating his gratitude for being rescued with a fantasy movie. Lance needed to be more careful. 

He moved his hands to Keith's shoulders, allowing the shirt to fall modestly back down. "We should sleep." 

The huff of frustration that Keith let out was enough to blow his bangs from his eyes. 

Lance ruffled his hair. "It's late and it's been a long day." He used Keith's head to pull him into a hug. Hugs were safe. "You need to be well rested for ice cream and  _ Die Hard _ ."

Keith locked his arms around Lance’s waist and nestled as close as he could get. “I am not human, so I don’t know - but I don’t think eating ice cream needs a lot of sleep.” 

“You’d be surprised, especially after you eat it. C’mon, in you go.” Lance broke the hug and stepped back to get in on the other side.

Giving in, Keith crawled in and nestled down, facing Lance with his dimly glowing eyes. “Lance?”

“Hm?”

“What do humans dream about?”

Lance shifted onto his side so he was facing Keith. “Humans dream about a lot of different things and have nightmares too, scary dreams. Why?”

“I wondered if it was the same.” Keith’s voice was strange, full of emotion, but whatever the emotion was, it was unidentifiable. “Goodnight, Lance.”

Lance didn't immediately react. He lay there wondering if he’s said something wrong or if there was something Keith needed that he’d missed. Finally, Lance tucked the covers over them. "Goodnight." 

Lance got his answer around three in the morning, when he was jolted awake by frantic movement from the other side of the bed. Keith was hissing and scratching at nothing, eyes and veins glowing red. 

Frozen, Lance watched wide eyed, thinking that Keith was awake. The more he woke up, the faster he realized that Keith must be having a nightmare. "Keith," he whispered, trying to wake him up. If he didn't have to risk losing a hand he'd rather not. "Keith, wake up, it's just a dream." 

There were strange, choked, gurgling sounds coming from Keith’s throat, and it wasn’t until Lance glanced down that he realized Keith was trying to breathe through his gills. They flapped uselessly against his collarbone and neck, showing a bit of the angry red inside as Keith continued to scrabble against the air. When his eyes flew open, they flared a red bright enough to briefly illuminate the room. He looked around, giving a pitiful trill, disoriented tears sliding down his cheeks. Wherever the salty liquid touched, obsidian scales emerged, until he had black lines snaking down both cheeks. 

"Keith, hey," Lance kept his voice low and soft as he gingerly touched Keith, shaking him. "It's me. It's Lance. You're safe." 

He was still making that pathetic trill, a sound like dragging a nail over piano strings, but his eyes seemed to register and acknowledge that Lance was not a threat. His gills were still flapping, trying to drink in air, and it was making his throat constrict and squeeze. 

Lance shook a little harder, worried that Keith would suffocate. "Keith, c’mon buddy. I need you to wake up." When Keith didn't attack him, Lance pulled him close, ready to run to the pool if he didn't wake up  _ now _ . “Shhh, it's okay. Come back." He ran his hands down Keith's arms, squeezing them to wake him up. 

Finally, Keith dragged in a long breath of air through his lungs with a choked gasp. A few more deep breaths and he calmed down, bringing his hands up between them to place on Lance’s chest. “Lance?” 

Running his fingers through Keith’s hair, Lance pet and massaged his way down to Keith's neck. "It's me. You're safe. It was just a dream, I think." 

“I don’t think it is,” Keith whispered, morose and distant. “I don’t think it ever has been.” 

"What do you mean?" He ran his thumb over Keith's high cheekbone, across the glistening scales streaked there. 

Keith leaned into the touch. “I think they are memories...which I think is worse.” 

At the distraught look on Keith's face, Lance tucked him possessively close and stroked his hair as he rocked them. "Was it Lotor?" 

“No.” Keith’s body was stiff, even as he pressed closer - as if he wanted to give in and let himself be held, but didn’t think he was allowed. “Long before.” 

Lance didn't press. "You're here now." He tugged Keith until he was sitting in his lap, scratching small circles on Keith's back. 

“I am sorry,” Keith said contritely. “You are not sleeping. I should leave.” 

Keith tried to pull away, but Lance’s arms tightened around him. "Please don't leave," Lance said into his hair. 

“But if it happens again, you will wake up.” Keith squirmed a bit, but clearly didn’t actually want to move. 

"So? What was it you said; 'sleeping together means you watch out for each other,’ right? Let me watch out for you." 

There was no way for Lance to know how much that would affect Keith. Clearly he had touched on an especially deep wound. Whereas before Keith had been more or less allowing himself to be manhandled, now he was wrapping his legs around Lance and trying to burrow into him. The space where his head was pressed grew wet. 

Lance returned the hug, squeezing Keith to him. He softly murmured comforting words as he rocked them both. Keith cried and cried as they sat in the dim light of the moon. The far off ocean seemed to swell and crash harder against the rocks below their window, thrashing in time with Keith’s muffled sobs. 

When Keith had finally worn himself out, he sat back with a wet sniffle and swiped at his scale-speckled cheeks with the heel of his palm. “Crying is messy as a human,” he complained, voice thick with exhaustion and congestion. For being a pretty creature, he was not a pretty crier; his nose was red, his eyes were red, and his whole face was damp and shiny, both skin and scales. 

"I didn't realize I was so messy," Lance said, with a breathy laugh. He wiped Keith's tears and tucked a stray hair behind his fin-like ear. "Are you still scared?" 

Keith shook his head more than necessary, sending his long, unruly hair swaying. “No. Tired. Very tired.” 

"Then close your eyes. I'll watch over you," Lance yawned, leaning back against the headboard. 

“No,” Keith insisted, tugging Lance down and rolling on his side. He brought Lance’s arm with him so that he was spooning Keith from behind. “Together sleep.” 

Apparently fatigue and sleepiness made Keith’s English less than stellar, but his intentions were quite clear. 

Lance tucked his legs into the crook of Keith's. "Together sleep it is," he agreed, breathing in Keith's sea spray scent as he succumbed to the sound of the waves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Autumn: Pidge: Don’t have a crush on the fish man  
> Lance: I DON’T HAVE A CRUSH ON THE FISH MAN  
> Also Lance: Has a crush on the fish man 
> 
> Many thanks again to [Pretzellus](https://instagram.com/pretzellus?igshid=re14hslcreyb) for the adorable art. PUT YOUR LEGS BACK ON (see previous chapter)
> 
> Sail: I hope the wait only made this chapter, in the words of Keith, "sweet *more*" I love how gone lance is for Keith but how much he respects him to not take advantage of his situation. Also there's a little mystery surrounding Keith can you guess it? 
> 
> This is a cool linktree that will take you [magical places](https://linktr.ee/sailunchartedwaters)
> 
> I miss nsfw Tumblr but whatever, check out the hell bird site [Autumn Ignited](https://twitter.com/AutumnIgnited) and [SailUnchartedWaters](https://twitter.com/SailUnchartd)


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